Museum Director, Book Editor Offer Perspectives on International Food and Culture

Philadelphia, PACalling all foodies! On Monday, May 5, 2014, The Womens Committee of the Penn Museum launches a new book, Culinary Expeditions: A Celebration of Food and Culture Inspired by Penn Museum Treasures, at a festiveand delectableluncheon celebration from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm at the Penn Museum, 3260 South Street, Philadelphia. Julian Siggers, Ph.D., Williams Director of the Penn Museum, and Jane Hickman, Ph.D., Editor of the new book, speak. Tickets to the luncheon program are $125, and include a copy of Culinary Expeditions, special shopping opportunities, and complimentary valet parking. All proceeds will benefit the Penn Museum. Culinary Expeditions is the result of a two-year collaboration between the Penn Museum staff and the Womens Committee of the Penn Museum. This full-color publication includes photographs of foodrelated Museum artifacts, and sections describing foods, food-making techniques, and stories about the cultures and cultural regions represented in the Museums international collection: Africa and ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, Asia and the Middle East, Mesoamerica and Native America. Ten recipes from each region, including some from ancient cultures, and short essays about featured ingredients, are designed to whet appetites and draw readers into the kitchenand to the galleries of the Penn Museum for inspiration. Select recipes from Culinary Expeditions, featured at the luncheon, make this an international food celebration, held in the Museums famed Chinese Rotunda and the adjoining ancient Egyptian Gallery. Guests are treated to a meal that features roasted salmon fillets with caviar and nut oil (Native American), saffron rice pilaf (Middle East), cucumber cashew salad (Asia) and for dessert, Pignoli cookies (Rome). The luncheon is prepared by Restaurant Associates, the Museums exclusive caterers. Guests have the rare opportunity to view a range of artifacts featured in Culinary Expeditions, on display from Museum storage for this occasion only. The celebration features short illustrated talks. Julian Siggers, Ph.D., Williams Director of the Penn Museum, speaks about the special links between civilizations and their foods. Jane Hickman, Ph.D., Editor of Culinary Expeditions and the Museums Expedition magazine, highlights aspects of the book and its publication. Special shopping, and a raffle auction, are included in the event. Additional copies of Culinary Expeditions will be available for purchase at the event for $25. The launch luncheon invitation is online. Reservations (Gourmet individual tickets at $125 each, orEpicurian table of 10 at $1,000) to the Culinary Expeditions launch luncheon are due by April 21. To reserve a space, call or email the Museums Womens Committee: 215.898.9202, or Ardeth Anderson, ardeth@sas.upenn.edu. About the speakers: Jane Hickman, Ph.D. Jane Hickman received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008. During the 2004/05 academic year, she was a Fulbright scholar at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Dr.

Hickman was the recipient of a Louis J. Kolb fellowship at the Penn Museum, where she currently serves as Consulting Scholar and Editor of Expedition magazine. Dr. Hickman also serves as Special Assistant to the Director for Museum Programs. In that capacity, she organizes academic programs such as panel discussions and conferences. Dr. Hickmans research focuses on gold and silver jewelry from the ancient Aegean, the Near East, and Central Asia. Julian Siggers, Ph.D. Julian Siggers, Ph.D., is the Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. His appointment became effective on July 1, 2012. Dr. Siggers came to the Penn Museum from the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, where he was vice president for programs, education and content communication. He has also served as director of the Institute for Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum and as head of narrative and broadcast development at the United Kingdoms National Museum of Science and Industry in London. Dr. Siggers taught prehistoric archaeology at the University of Toronto, where he earned his Ph.D., with a specialization in Near Eastern prehistoric archaeology. In addition to his doctorate from the University of Toronto, Dr. Siggers earned an M.A. in prehistoric archaeology and B.A. with honors in archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. About the Penn Museum Founded in 1887, the Penn Museum (the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology), 3260 South Street in Philadelphia, is one of the worlds great archaeology and anthropology research museums, and the largest university museum in the United States. With nearly one million objects in the collection, the Penn Museum encapsulates and illustrates the human story: who we are and where we came from. A dynamic research institution with many ongoing research projects, the Museum is an engaging place of discovery. The Museums mandate of research, teaching, collections stewardship, and public engagement are the four pillars of the Museums expansive mission: to transform understanding of the human experience. Information: www.penn.museum, or 215.898.4000.