Two Years of All About Ancient Art

Want to a year-long paid subscription to All About Ancient Art for free? Read on (or scroll down) to enter a giveaway!

Two years ago, around the end of July 2024, I started a Substack profile. Honestly, I do not remember what was going through my head. I was probably looking for a better place to share long-form content about my museum trips and travels as I embarked upon the first year of my PhD.

After about a year of inconsistency, I really invested myself in this page during the Spring of 2025. I noticed that people were interested in ancient art. Yet, there seemed to be so little available for public audiences. Sure, the Colosseum is everywhere. And maybe, we all know what a portrait of Augustus looks like. But, no one cared to share dusty marble fragments hidden in corners or brilliant glass cups that glimmer on the back walls.

It is this particular niche that I find myself occupying here on Substack. I am both a voracious photographer in museums and an art historian-in-training. I try to share all aspects of Roman art, from museums and sites familiar and unfamiliar to the public.

I am now entering the third year of my PhD. I have earned my second M.A., passed my language requirements, completed coursework, gained hands on experience working in Pompeii and with a collection of late antique textiles. My dissertation and preliminary exams now hang over my head. Most importantly, however, I am truly invigorated by this account and the prospect of sharing the wonderful world of Roman art with a broad audience, reaching far beyond the ivory towers and classrooms.

Each month, I’ll continue sharing a long-form newsletter for free subscribers. I am also sharing a monthly newsletter for paid subscribers that offers a ‘close look’ at an object or site I have encountered on my adventures. This month, for example, we’ll take a close look at reticella glass to think about what the Romans thought about value, intermediality, and material spectacle at the dinner table.

I am also testing another offering for my subscribers, a monthly (or quarterly) video. With the live video available to everyone and the recording reserved for paid subscribers, we’ll look closely at all sorts of art in response to a broad, guiding question. I am tentatively scheduling the first live for August 30th at 1:00 PM EST, and you can pick the topic!

Obviously, I’ll continue sharing photos and factoids on Notes. I love engaging with my followers and subscribers this way.

As a proud Gen-Z-er, I feel like I grew up in the age of internet giveaways. What better way to celebrate my own two year Substack anniversary than with a giveaway of my own? If you comment on this Newsletter (literally anything… an emoji, a question about Roman art, a fun fact, the weather today?), I’ll enter your name into a drawing for a free year-long paid subscription to this Newsletter. These typically cost $30, but it could cost you nothing.

Stay tuned for this month’s newsletter, “Were the Romans really Wannabes?” covering the relationship between Greek and Roman art in the early empire on August 14th.

This month’s paid subscriber letter “Woven Glass, Reticella Cups in Context” will be published August 20th.

This would not be possible without my kind, engaged subscribers. Thank you all for your interest and time. Let’s continue to learn together!

Your local art historian-in-training,

Jackie