Nancy Um
LightNews LightNews
banner
nancyum.bsky.social
Nancy Um
@nancyum.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.8K following 140 posts
Art History - Indian Ocean Studies - Digital Humanities
Posts Replies Media Videos
nancyum.bsky.social
Here it is - still there, just covered up - for the solstice in 2023
Getty Research Institute L3 level on the occasion of the summer solstice 2023. Overlooking what used to be an installation project by Andy Goldsworthy
October 31, 2025 at 4:45 AM
nancyum.bsky.social
For anyone in Los Angeles who is interested in the politics of cultural heritage, put this event on your calendar!

Renowned scholar and anthropologist Lynn Meskell will speak at the Getty on Saturday November 22, 2025 at 3 pm.

Register here: www.getty.edu/calendar/rui...
Photograph of the city of Kyiv with buildings in the background and tanks in the foreground. Below is text on a coral pink background that announces the lecture “Ruined” on November 22 2025, held at the Getty Center
October 29, 2025 at 11:28 PM
nancyum.bsky.social
Two open positions in the Division of Research and Knowledge Creation at the Getty Research Institute.

Both opportunities are ideal for early career professionals who wish to advance the study of art history and cultural heritage! Please circulate to potential candidates! 1/3
View of a white modernist building with a rounded facade, overlooking green hills, a view of the Pacific Ocean in the background.
July 18, 2025 at 12:00 AM
nancyum.bsky.social
I had forgotten how amazingly beautiful the grounds of the Huntington are! Finally got to see the Shoya house, transported and reconstructed from Japan.
View of an artificial pond with Chinese inspired buildings and lotus flowers Detail of pink lotus flowers floating in pond Facade of a low lying wooden house from Japan reconstructed in Pasadena. Situated in a pristine and well groomed landscape. The Shoya House.
May 23, 2025 at 1:26 PM
nancyum.bsky.social
Read this terrific post about the conclave, communicated through historic prints!

Including a print of the 17th C procession of Pope Innocent X, from @gettymuseum.bsky.social

hdl.handle.net/10020/p85000...
The print depicts the funeral procession of Pamphilj Pope Innocent X, which proceeded from the Palazzo di Monte Cavallo to Saint Peter's. The artist has identified various participants and objects of tribute involved in the processional including five pieces of artillery pulled by horses, German guards with pikes, members of the Palafrenieri family, trumpeters and others. A small portrait in the upper right hand corner displays the likeness of the late Pope. With Pecci-Blunt collector's marks in the lower left corner, which suggests transfer from another print's verso and a second, faint and illegible mark of the collector in the lower right hand corner.
May 7, 2025 at 3:14 PM
nancyum.bsky.social
Very lucky to have escaped the madness for just a few days - beautiful sunset off the Big Island of Hawaii.
View of the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean, a sizzling orange disk descending in the distance over a ridge of clouds, taken from the Kona coast, Hawaii
March 27, 2025 at 5:28 PM
nancyum.bsky.social
Getty offers this course each year in conjunction with our scholar theme: "Extinction" for 2024-25. The instructor is always a local Southern California scholar in residence. This year, Professor Heather Badamo from UCSB is teaching "Global Contact, Art, and Catastrophe in the Premodern Era"
Square promotional image with a black and white photograph of a ruined building with an arch in the background. It reads "Extinction" at the Getty Center and calls for applications for scholar grants in 2024-25.
January 27, 2025 at 1:05 AM
nancyum.bsky.social
Last week I had the great pleasure of lecturing on the topic of shipwrecks to the Getty Consortium Seminar, a grad class taught @gettymuseum.bsky.social that enrolls students from surrounding universities.
View of a sun-filled room with people seated around a long wooden table. Papers, laptops, and water bottles are strewn across the table's surface. The group looks toward the camera, smiling.
January 27, 2025 at 1:05 AM
nancyum.bsky.social
My new article: "Linking Seventeenth-Century Yemen to Colonial New England: A Closer Look at Silver Coins across the Indian and Atlantic Oceans" in Am Journal of Numismatics (2024).

Tracing the journey of silver coins from Yemen to Madagascar to colonial America, many found by metal detectorists.
Map of New England, with 5 dots in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine. These indicate colonial era sites where late 17th C Yemeni coins have been found.
January 22, 2025 at 2:35 AM
nancyum.bsky.social
I have never been so depressed about a sunny forecast. Even a drop of rain would be welcome.
Screenshot of the Apple weather app with the forecast for Los Angeles for the next ten days - showing sunny days through next week
January 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
nancyum.bsky.social
I ended up coming back to work later in the evening and witnessed this view at midnight - a frightening picture of smoldering destruction. Sending all fellow Angelenos hope and unity amidst so much loss and heartbreak.
Evening scene of a smoldering landscape with lights and a smoky sky with a bright moon in the corner
January 9, 2025 at 2:09 AM
nancyum.bsky.social
When I left work at the end of the day the smoke was grey and ballooned toward the sky - flames were visible across the mountain ridge
Smoke rising in the distance and birds of paradise in the foreground
January 9, 2025 at 2:09 AM
nancyum.bsky.social
Yesterday at midday the view from my office revealed plumes of smoke in the west against white fluffy clouds
View of distant trees and cloud with a travertine patio in the foreground- smoke rising in the distance
January 9, 2025 at 2:09 AM
nancyum.bsky.social
Another amazing sunset @gettymuseum.bsky.social - it takes my breath away every time!
View over a hilly landscape toward the west as the Sun goes down over the Pacific Ocean lighting up the sky with flashes of orange, yellow, and purple
December 12, 2024 at 1:07 PM
nancyum.bsky.social
Recently, in Yemen, there is a great deal of interest in Mocha's early history. A novel by Samir Muhammad fictionalized the international encounters that took place in the city. Yemenis are active on the other site. Haven't seen them here yet. But I'd like to boost his title: "Moka City"
Cover for the book "Mocha City," featuring a view of a Middle Eastern port city with a Dutch ship in the harbor. The image is rendered from the deck of another ship.
December 8, 2024 at 3:35 PM
nancyum.bsky.social
The term Mocha was then adopted as a blanket term to refer to Yemeni coffee beans, but also other coffee related products like the Italian stovetop coffeepot, called a "moka."

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mo...
A closeup view of a worn-out metal stovetop coffeepot with a black handle and top, sitting on a table top.
December 8, 2024 at 3:35 PM
nancyum.bsky.social
It might seem trivial in this weighty & vexed time, but I do feel the need to comment on the Pantone 2025 Color of the Year: Mocha Mousse. www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year/2025

Mocha is a port city on Yemen's Red Sea coast that sat at the center of maritime trade networks in the 17th & 18th C.
A glass bowl full of brown pudding on a background of light brown panels and branding for Pantone's 2025 color of the year Mocha Mousse
December 8, 2024 at 3:35 PM
nancyum.bsky.social
Good for contemplation on a very tough day - James Turrell at Crystal Bridges
View of a stone chamber with an open oculus revealing blue sky above
November 7, 2024 at 5:04 AM
nancyum.bsky.social
Getty Scholar Theme 2025-26: REPAIR

*Open to pre-docs, post-docs, and established scholars and professionals *Dedicated grants via the African American art history initiative *Applications open in July

More information: getty.edu/projects/get...

Please circulate widely!
Black ceramic teacup with lines of golds across its surface. The text reads repair, Getty, Grants for Scholars and Professionals 2025-26, Due October 1, 2024
May 14, 2024 at 2:56 AM
nancyum.bsky.social
Finally got to visit the Computer History Museum in Mountainview today, which was so interesting and does a decent job at condensing technically challenging information for the wider public.

But I suspect that their gallery on AI will not hold up very well these days!
View of an exhibition at the Computer History Museum, featuring a wall panel entitled "Solving the Riddle of AI," along with a display of an old computer and more museum labelling.
February 24, 2024 at 3:08 AM
nancyum.bsky.social
This is happening! @periodeye.bsky.social is delivering the Gaehtgens Lecture at the Getty Research Institute on Dec 2, 4 pm.

Register here: www.getty.edu/visit/cal/ev...
A sign at the Getty Research Institute with a band of images at the top and white text on a red background below. Advertising the lecture "Going Viral in the Renaissance featuring Stephanie Porras."
November 15, 2023 at 3:58 AM
nancyum.bsky.social
Today I got to see so many paintings that I have taught so many times to thousands of students over the years. The best was Parmagianino's Madonna with the Long Neck. I love the foot with the very perky big toe, right at eye level!
Madonna with the Long Neck, an oil painting by Parmigianino. Large woman with flowing robes holding a very big baby. Figures looking on, crowded around the two figures. Detail from Madonna with the Long Neck, the Madonna's foot.
September 19, 2023 at 7:29 PM