ABSTRACT
The 2009 Spring Symposium of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies was framed around the exhibition, taking as its theme the idea of exhibiting Byzantium. This was defined in two ways. How, in concrete, physical, practical terms, is it possible to set up an exhibition of Byzantine material to appeal to a public for whom the term ‘byzantine’ more usually refers to the machinations of an inefficient government? And, a very different issue, how can the specific objects of exhibition display inform us about the culture and society of Byzantium? The Symposium also went further in trying to conceptualise Byzantium and its art in a broader cultural setting.
