Color and the Ancient World

Class Description: The history of color in art opens the door to ancient cultures and civilizations around the globe. In this course we will explore questions of how and why ancient peoples used colors, investigating sources as diverse as minerals, plants, and sea creatures. From the earliest archeological records we know that color has had a place of importance in communicating meaning for humans, and also that people would go to remarkable lengths to find color for artworks. As we travel around the world, we will look at objects that speak to religion, status and power structures from prehistoric times through Ancient Greece to the 12th century.

Days: Wednesdays, Oct 15 - Nov 19, 2025

Time: 2pm-5pm

Location: DeBruce Hall, room 123 CAMPUS MAP

Instructor: A native New Yorker, Sharon Reeber is an artist and art historian in the Kansas City, Missouri area. Her work in painting, mixed media, and printmaking draws from a variety of sources, including observation of the natural environment, world landscape painting and mandala traditions, and color theories. She was recently honored to receive a Morris Graves Foundation Artist Residency and has traveled and studied in Europe and Asia. Her work is included in corporate and private collections in the U.S. and Europe, including Kaiser-Permanente (Kansas City) and Gleiss-Lutz (Stuttgart) and has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibits. Reeber currently teaches at the Kansas City Art Institute. She holds an M.A. from the University of Missouri – Kansas City and B.A. from Tufts University, and studied art history at the Eberhard-Karls Universitaet in Tuebingen, Germany. Her scholarly writing on German modernism has been published in international journals in Germany and China.

Supplies: The instructor will contact registered students directly regarding materials and supplies.

Parking: Parking is available in any of the (NON-RESERVED) KCAI parking lot spaces across campus. RESERVED spaces are available after 5pm on the weekdays and all day on the weekends. There is also available street parking surrounding KCAI campus. 

Refund: Registered participants can receive refunds to the original payment method (Studio Fee minus Humanitix Fee) up to 14 days before the first class.