ARCE-Chicago: Ancient Egyptian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago: A New Digital Publication

The digital publication Ancient Egyptian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago celebrates more than three thousand years of artistic achievement in the Nile Valley, and is the first catalogue dedicated to the Art Institute’s collection of Egyptian antiquities in more than a century. Published in June 2025, this richly illustrated digital publication (with new, open access object photos) presents more than one hundred works from the Art Institute’s collection of ancient Egyptian art. It covers a wide range of object types, including: relief sculpture; stone, metal, and wood statuary; shabtis and ushabtis; papyrus; an ostracon; vessels; personal adornment; amulets; inlays; and funerary equipment. In this presentation, authors Emily Teeter and Ashley Arico will introduce the Art Institute of Chicago’s Egyptian collection and its history; highlight new object-based research that is featured in the publication; reflect on the publication project; and provide a guide to using this new digital resource, which can be accessed here.

Speaker Bio

Ashley Arico is Associate Curator of Ancient Egyptian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. She received a BA from the University of California, Berkeley and an MA and PhD from Johns Hopkins University. Ashley has excavated at the Mut Temple (Karnak) and previously held positions at the Walters Art Museum, the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 2022, she curated Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, a gallery displaying selections from the Art Institute’s Egyptian collection. Dr. Arico is co-author (with Dr. Emily Teeter) of the digital catalogue Ancient Egyptian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (2025). Her current research focuses on the intersection of art and writing production in late 1st millennium BCE Egypt through the lens of sculptors’ models. A longtime ARCE member, Ashley has been President of the Chicago chapter of ARCE since 2020 and President of the ARCE Chapter Council since 2023.

Emily Teeter holds a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago. Presently, she is a Research Associate of the Negaunee Integrative Research Center, at the Field Museum in Chicago, and an Associate of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at the University of Chicago. Formerly a curator and special exhibits coordinator at the Oriental Institute (now ISAC), she is now co-curator for the new galleries of Egyptian and African art at the Field Museum scheduled to open in 2028. She is the author of many articles and catalogues on Egyptian objects. Her most recent book is Chicago on the Nile. She is a past president of ARCE, and she is the editor of the Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt.