Creator and Host of the Ancient Art Podcast
Creative Aging & Accessibility Activist
Art Museum Educator
Historian of Beer, Fermentation, & Drinking Culture
Curator of Experimental Libations, Morgue Brewing
Board of Directors, Chicago Brewseum
Résumé / Curriculum Vitae
Academia.edu
LinkedIn
YouTube
Empowering people to embrace the power of art, Lucas Livingston is a 20 year career expert in museum learning, art history, creative aging, nonprofit administration, and disability activism. He is Executive Director of Chicago Hyde Park Village and, for over a decade, directed the Art Institute of Chicago’s therapeutic, health, wellness, and enrichment opportunities for adult learners and people with disabilities. Lucas frequently leads professional arts and culture workshops, panel discussions, webinars, and conference presentations and is a published author in peer-reviewed journals on the topics of museum learning, equity, accessibility, and creative aging. He serves on the American Society on Aging’s Lifetime Education and Renewal Network (LEARN) Council, the Arts for Brain Health Coalition, Make Room @ The Table, and the Board of Directors for the Chicago Brewseum. He was a founding steering committee member with the Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium and a member of the Alzheimer’s Association Greater Illinois Chapter’s Early-Stage Advisory Committee.
Lucas is the creator and host of the Ancient Art Podcast, which he started in 2006. His primary scholarly areas of concentration include Egypt, Classical Civilization, and Asia with particular emphases on the visual arts and drinking culture.
Years ago, in an effort not to be the first one voted off the island, Lucas began brewing beer inspired by historic recipes, narratives, and traditions (strictly for research). He has spoken on the history of beer and wine at Goose Island Brewpub, Chicago Brewseum, American Homebrewers Association Homebrew Con, University of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Field Museum of Natural History, New York University, Indiana University, Jane Austen Society, Society for Creative Anachronism, and University of Hawaii. You can read all about his exploits as curator of experimental libations at Morgue Brewing.
His secret crime-fighting alter ego is a computer geek while moonlighting as tech support for friends and family. Lastly, he once found himself having accidentally started a collection of hairless pets, which he sometimes regretted, but would always come around.
Recent Lecture Highlights
- The Healing Power of Museums: How Arts and Culture are Healthy for Us, NSU Florida
- Libations: Alcohol’s Magic in Antiquity—Fermentation, Intoxication, Metamorphosis, and Madness, Chicago Brewseum
- Drinking Games in History, Chicago Brewseum
- Drinking Culture in Ancient China, Chicago Brewseum
- Field Museum of Natural History’s Science of Alcohol discussion series: The Hard Stuff: Ancient Brewing Practices in Egypt and Peru, The Whistler, Chicago
- Drinking with Dionysos and Sekhmet’s Wrath: Beer and Wine in Egypt and Greece, Art Institute of Chicago Classical Art Society
- Ancient Beer and Wine, Indiana University Northwest
- The Story of German Beer, Tinley Park Public Library
- Alcohol’s Magic in Antiquity or How to Be the Ass of Athens at Cult Practices in Ancient Literatures: Egyptian, Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman Narratives in a Cross-Cultural Perspective, ISAW, New York University
- Age of Indulgence: Beer and Wine in the Era of Jane Austen for the Jane Austen Society of North America, Greater Chicago Region at Goose Island Clybourn
- Drinking in Antiquity (Egypt and Mesopotamia; The Silk Road; Ancient Greece), 3-part/6-hour workshop and craft beer tasting, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
- Things That Go Bump: A Visual Survey of Witchcraft, Demons, & the Occult, Glenview Public Library & Tinley Park Public Library
Popular Lectures (contact Lucas)
- Great Waves: Impressionism and Japanese Prints
- What’s So Great about Hokusai’s Great Wave?
- Agony & Excellence: Olympics & the Greek Games
- Spiritual Journey: In the Footsteps of Buddha
- Top 10 Ancient Egyptian Myths and Misconceptions
- In the Footsteps of Greatness: Alexander to Buddha
- Where East Meets West: Art of the Silk Road
- House of Snow and Gilded Gods: Art of the Himalayas
- Gilded Gods and Sacred Stories of the Hindu Pantheon
- Art and Myth in Ancient Egypt
- Reading Egyptian Art: Hieroglyphs and Sacred Symbols
- Things that Go Bump: Witches, Ghosts, and Demons
- Age of Thrones and Shining Steel: Armor, Dragons, and the Real White Walkers
ART, HISTORY, & CULTURE OF BEER AND WINE: - Drinking Games in History
- Pub Crawl around the World: the Art and Culture of Drink from Antiquity to Modernity
- Tipsy with Tut and Sekhmet’s Wrath: Beer and Wine in Ancient Egypt
- Drinking in Ancient Greece or How to Be the Ass of Athens
- The Story of German Beer
- Drinking along the Silk Road: China, Mongolia, and Central Asia