F. Kent Reilly III is director of the Center for the Study of Arts and Symbolism of Ancient America at Texas State University, San Marcos. He will speak on the iconography and historical usage of the Wulfing Repoussé Plaques in the Teaching Gallery exhibition American Indian Art and Iconography.

From Dr. Reilly: "Stylistic and iconographic comparisons of the motif and symbol components of certain copper repousse plates from Missouri and Mississippian regalia reveal shared patterns of usage. These usage patterns suggest a common understanding of ritual within a specific temporal period and across a large geographic distance. Specifically, the accoutrements of sacred bundles, long-nosed maskettes, and “Moundville Circle” regalia, appear to have their origin in those workshops of the central Mississippi Valley. These workshops produced astounding objects in shell, copper, and clay in the “Greater Braden” art style, and thus visualized an ideology that linked the ancient Native American ritual performers of the St. Louis area to identifiable supernatural concepts and entities."