Touching History: Exploring the Scarab Vase at the Everson Museum of Art invites visitors to experience one of Syracuse’s greatest artistic treasures in a completely new way. This innovative exhibition centers on Adelaide Alsop Robineau’s Scarab Vase, often referred to as The Apotheosis of the Toiler, a masterpiece of American art pottery that embodies both technical brilliance and emotional depth. Through Touching History: Exploring the Scarab Vase, visitors are encouraged to engage with the work not only visually but also physically—bridging the worlds of art, history, and technology.
Created between 1910 and 1911, Robineau’s Scarab Vase required over 1,000 hours of precise hand-carving, each detail revealing her mastery of form and dedication to her craft. The design, filled with symbolic scarabs and rhythmic patterns, represents transformation, perseverance, and the elevation of labor into beauty. In this installation, the Everson Museum of Art pairs the original porcelain masterpiece with a detailed 3D-printed replica, allowing visitors to trace the artist’s intricate carvings and experience the sculpture’s texture firsthand.
Touching History: Exploring the Scarab Vase reimagines how museums share fragile and significant works, using advanced technology to make art more inclusive and immersive. By allowing visitors to connect with Robineau’s creation through touch and sight, the exhibition deepens appreciation for her contribution to the American art pottery movement and celebrates the enduring influence of Syracuse’s ceramic heritage.
Through innovation, accessibility, and storytelling, Touching History: Exploring the Scarab Vase invites everyone to connect with history in a profoundly personal way, where art, craftsmanship, and human creativity truly come to life at the Everson Museum of Art.
Touching History: Exploring the Scarab Vase was made possible with support from Candace and John Marsellus. The Everson is supported by the Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman Foundation; the General Operating Support program, a regrant program of the County of Onondaga with the support of County Executive, J. Ryan McMahon II, and the Onondaga County Legislature, administered by CNY Arts; and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
