Friends of the NY Society
This a small group of enthusiasts and professionals who go the extra mile to provide the New York Society with the ability to bring you the most extensive lecture program(s) in the AIA.
As a bonus they have access to several private and intimate events such as guided tours of exhibits and lectures held in people’s homes.
These are events where the Friends can gather in a small, informal setting to share knowledge, ask questions and enjoy making new friends with professional archaeologists and with those of similar interests.
If you are interested in joining Friends of the AIA-NYS, please fill out THIS FORM. To inquire about joining the Friends please email us.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Archaeological Institute of America - New York Society are pleased to co-sponsor a lecture in celebration of The Met’s Department of Egyptian Art upcoming exhibition, Divine Egypt.
Under the leadership of Diana Craig Patch (Lila Acheson Wallace Curator in Charge) together with Brendan Hainline (Research Associate) and all of the department’s curators, the exhibition opens on October 6, 2025 and runs until January 19, 2026. The show will explore the ways in which the ancient Egyptians chose certain iconographic elements to represent particular deities and, in certain cases, their specific roles. The exhibition will include some of the earliest divine images, dating to about 3300 BCE, and will continue with dynamic examples from later Egyptian dynasties. The show brings together for the first time an unparalleled assembly of Egyptian deities sourced from The Met’s own collection and from important loans shared by both domestic and international museums. Accompanying the exhibition is a comprehensive catalog of the objects, with essays and entries written by the curatorial staff and guest authors that will break new ground, offering the most up-to-date treatment of divine iconography.
The Met/AIA-NYS Lecture will be held on Friday, January 9, 2026 in the Uris Education Center. The lecture will start at 6 PM. While the lecture is free, it will require prior registration. An email invitation with all the particulars and the ability to register will be sent toward the end of the fall 2025.
RECENT EVENTS
The Friends of the AIA-NYS attended a special tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now, on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, at 3 PM.
They joined Akili Tommasino, Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, for an exploration of how Black artists and cultural figures have engaged with ancient Egypt through various forms of expression, including visual art, sculpture, literature, music, scholarship, religion, politics, and performance. This exhibition offered a multi-sensory experience that spans nearly 150 years of artistic and cultural production, from the 19th century to the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, continuing to the present day.
