Calvin to Host Major Museum Exhibit

October 15, 2004 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Petra: Lost City of Stone is the most comprehensive exhibition ever presented
on the ancient, Middle Eastern city of Petra and its creators - the Nabataeans.
 And it's coming to Grand Rapids.

The exhibit will be at Calvin College in its Prince Conference Center from
April 4 to August 15, 2005.

Petra opened in New York City in October 2003 for a nine-month showing and
then traveled to Cincinnati for a September 2004 to January 2005 run. The
exhibit is the first major cultural collaboration between Jordan and the United
States. It is organized by Cincinnati Art Museum and American Museum of
Natural History, New York under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania
Al-Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Air transportation has been
generously provided by Royal Jordanian.

Calvin President Gaylen Byker, who serves as co-chair for Petra: Lost City of
Stone, has been a frequent visitor to the Middle East, including several trips
to Petra. So when Calvin had the chance to host the exhibit (becoming one of
only five North American venues), he jumped at the offer.

"The Petra exhibit," he says, "is a great fit with Calvin's educational
mission and with Calvin's fast-expanding international involvement. The city
of Petra is one of the very best archaeological sites in the world for
experiencing what life was like in the Middle East at the time of Christ.
What's exciting for me is how the exhibit allows people to experience Petra -
its history, its art, its architecture, its engineering prowess and its
importance in the Middle East, a region of the world that we all need to better
understand. For us to have the opportunity to bring this to West Michigan is
too good to pass up."

June Hamersma, Director of Calvin's January Series and the other Petra exhibit
co-chair, says simply: "The exhibit represents a true gift to this community
and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience one of the greatest
archaeological complexes in world history."

Hamersma notes too that Petra: Lost City of Stone was almost a decade in the
making, having first been conceived in 1994 by the Cincinnati Art Museum, which
then joined forces with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New
York City in a monumental effort to gather the 200 exceptional objects that
comprise the traveling exhibit.

Items on display include stone sculptures and reliefs, ceramics, metalwork,
architectural elements, terracotta or ancient water pipes, artworks in various
media and other fascinating artifacts. All are on loan from collections in
Jordan and throughout Europe and the United States. Many are on display in the
United States for the first time.

All told the exhibit will be spread out across 7,000 square feet at Calvin's
Prince Conference Center, which will undergo significant modifications to host
Petra: Lost City of Stone.

Among the highlights of the exhibition are several pieces recently discovered
by archaeologists working in Jordan, as well as a monumental bust of Dushara,
on public display outside Jordan for the first time. The bust is almost four
feet tall and weighs some 2,100 pounds!

Another highlight at the exhibit was actually unearthed by a graduate of the
college: Grand Rapids based archaeologist, teacher and photographer Neal
Bierling, who has worked on Petra and helped excavate a marble Byzantine church
pulpit that will be on display at Calvin.

Bierling, who originally approached his alma mater about bringing Petra to
Calvin, says one of the interesting things about Petra's history is its
position as a center for the rise of Christianity.

"There was an earthquake in Petra in 363 AD," Bierling says, "that many
historians say destroyed Petra and its place as a thriving Middle Eastern city.
 In fact, after the earthquake Petra became a hotbed for the growth of
Christianity. Interestingly the Christians in Petra took the pagan temples
that had been destroyed and used the materials to build churches and chapels.
That's been kind of an untold part of the Petra story."

Calvin plans to tell the entire Petra story through a series of events
connected to the exhibit including outreach efforts to local schools and lots
of youth programming, a lecture series for adults, a special Calvin history
course (open to all), textile displays and more.

Byker notes that bringing Petra: Lost City of Stone to Calvin's campus will
not be a small undertaking for the college. Renovations to the Prince
Conference Center (which is just two years old) alone will cost several hundred
thousand dollars. Calvin will be building new walls, painting and carpeting,
developing and installing temperature and humidity controls, adding lighting
and putting in extensive security and alarm systems to protect and enhance the
display of the 200 ancient artifacts.

The effort, Byker says, will be worth it.

"This is a world-class exhibit," he says, "and the opportunity to present it
to people in Grand Rapids and beyond was one we felt we had to take. It's a
singular opportunity for the community."

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Tickets for the exhibit go on sale December 1 via the Petra Box Office
(526-7800 or 800-PETRA05) and website (www.calvin.edu/petra). Petra: Lost City
of Stone will travel to Calgary (October 2005-February 2006 at the Glenbow
Museum) and Ottawa (April-September 2006 at the Canadian Museum of
Civilization) after Grand Rapids.

For Petra pictures see the Petra website or contact Phil de Haan. Also a
picture of the famous Petra Treasury - shot by Bert de Vries, director of the
archaology minor at Calvin College - can be found at
http://www.calvin.edu/news/photos/special/petra.jpg

Contact Gaylen Byker at 616-526-6100 or June Hamersma at 616-526-7018

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Received on Fri Oct 15 09:14:03 2004