Since ancient times roads/routes have linked places and cultures, fostering in this process the trade, the spread of people, ideas, and technologies, the exploration, and recording of new lands, the creation of settlements, the definition of landscapes, the building of empires, and the shaping of nations.
For centuries, roads/routes have acted as facilitators of cross-cultural encounters, enabling the voluntary and forced migration and interaction of peoples. The increasing transportation and exchange of raw materials and trade goods, either by sea or by land, also made these networks instrumental in the development and expansion of a more globally integrated economy.
Likewise, roads/routes have played a crucial role in the introduction and dissemination of religious beliefs, art styles, knowledge, and new forms of technology transforming ever since values and modes of thought across space and time. A variety of arts were selectively and creatively localized in specific cultural contexts and took on new meanings.
The Center for Creativity and the Arts invites the public to an exploration of the global phenomenon of roads and routes that shaped the history of the pre-modern world at 1 p.m., Thursday, March 7 in the Alice Peters Auditorium (PB191). Parking is $4 in lot P6. For more information contact artanddesigna@csufresno.edu.
The colloquium is part of CCA’s 2018-2019 theme “Crossroads”. Speakers include John Pohl, Steve Lekson, David Conrad, George Greenia, José Adrián Barragán-Álvarez, and Wannasarn Noonsuk. The event will be moderated by Keith Jordan, Professor of Art and Design and Luis J. Gordo-Peláez, Assistant Professor of Art and Design.
The College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State 