Hampden-Sydney College’s Atkins Museum is offering several lectures during the remainder of the school year on art and more. All lectures begin at 3 p.m. on the dates offered. The programs include:

• Oct. 30, “An Ornament to Empire: The Temple of Herod as a Roman Building,” Peter Schertz — The Temple of Herod in Jerusalem was one of the largest and most thoroughly documented religious sanctuaries in the Roman world. Described as an “Ornament to Empire” by its destroyer, the future emperor Titus, it is the temple that stood at the time of Jesus. Working with archeological evidence as well as ancient Jewish, Christian and polytheist literary texts, Schertz explores the Second Temple in the Roman context.

• Jan. 29, “Is the Red You See the Same as the Red I See? The Experience of Color in Art,” Andrea Alvarez — Color is a significant part of how we view our world. Perhaps most noticeably, it impacts how we view art. An artist’s color choices can dictate the mood of an artwork, its appeal to art collectors, its neighbors in a gallery and its impression on its viewers. Color as a concept is easily understood when we select examples in the world around us, but it is much harder to define when we think about it abstractly either as light rays bouncing off an object or as something inherent in a material. Art historians, scientists, philosophers, artists, and many others have defined color for centuries — in varying ways and for various purposes. Close looking at a few paintings and objects from the Virginia Museum of Fine Art’s (VFMA) collection can facilitate a discussion of how we experience color, the factors that contribute to it, and the many differing ways that it as been defined. Students will learn about color, the history of color in art and discuss how their subjective experiences of color may or may not differ from those of their peers.

• Feb. 5, “How European Refugees Lifted 19th Century American Popular Art,” Jeffrey Ruggles — The 19th century was the Age of Pictures, when imagery of all types multiplied and entered everyday life. A key agent was the new medium of lithography. Lithographic printing was seen in postcards and letterheads, labels and wrappers, and tickets and show bills. Framed lithographic prints hung in parlors, lobbies and offices. The marvelous world of American lithography reached its apex through the wave of Europeans who immigrated after the Revolution of 1848 and brought advances in technique and art.

• April 2, “Exploring Post Modern African American Art,” Amanda Dalla Villa Adams — In this discussion of late 20th- through 21st-century African-American art from the VMFA’s permanent collection, learn what it means to view art and how we can discover new things when properly looking at a work of art. The discussion begins with simply looking. Then particpants will explore influences, such as race, gender or context, as well as technique and subject matter in the work of Kehinde Wiley, Julie Mehretu, Martin Puryear, Lorna Simpson, Kara Walker, Allison Saar, Renée Stout and Robert Pruitt.