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      Curator Talk

      Salem as Muse: Salem Stories

      Friday, December 4, 2026 from 3—4:15 pm

      Painting of Salem near the wharf

      Know before you go
       

      Morse Auditorium
      Included with admission

      Artist in the United States, Naumkeag Steam Cotton Mill, Salem, about 1850. Oil on canvas. Gift of the American Textile History Museum. 2017.9.1. 

      Throughout 2026, PEM has presented a series of curatorial talks highlighting works from our collection as part of the museum’s Salem 400+ celebrations. In our final “Salem as Muse” talk of 2026, join Karina Corrigan, Deputy Chief Curator and the H. A. Crosby Forbes Curator of Asian Export Art, for a discussion of PEM’s Salem Stories exhibition.

      This exhibition presents an A-Z array of 26 vignettes about the people, places and events that make Salem the city it is today. Starting with “A is for Always Indigenous,” the first vignette honors the Native communities who have lived for millennia on the land where the museum now sits. Ending with “Z is for Zoology,” the exhibition highlights a longtime collection favorite: a huge leatherback turtle specimen dating from 1885. Corrigan offers an insider’s perspective on the making of this team-curated project. Come hear about more Salem Stories before doing some holiday shopping on the streets of Salem! 

      About our collaborator

      Karina Corrigan
      Karina Corrigan

      Karina Corrigan's interests have always centered on the material culture of global connections. A graduate of Wellesley College, she holds master’s degrees in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania and in American material culture from Winterthur/the University of Delaware. She serves as the Deputy Chief Curator and The H.A. Crosby Forbes Curator of Asian Export Art at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM). As Deputy Chief Curator, Corrigan explores new ways to celebrate PEM’s rich and storied collection by spearheading research, enhancing access, and cultivating acquisitions. In her curatorial practice she oversees the largest, most comprehensive public collection of art made in China, Japan and South Asia for export to other cultures. 

      Corrigan has organized twelve exhibitions at PEM, including Power and Perspective: Early Photography in China and Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age. She also led the team of curators who organized PEM’s 2020 exhibition Salem Stories: A to Z during the height of the COVID epidemic.

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