OMAHA, NE.- Joslyn Art Museum announces the appointment of Erin Walcek Averett, Ph.D., as adjunct curator of antiquities. She will work in tandem with Joslyn curatorial staff in various projects beginning with the 2014 exhibition Poseidon and the Sea: Myth, Cult, and Daily Life (February 8–May 11, 2014).

Dr. Averett is assistant professor of archaeology in the department of fine and performing arts at Creighton University. She also serves as the assistant director of the Athienou Archaeological Project on Cyprus, funded by the National Science Foundation, and is president of the Omaha-Lincoln chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America. Dr. Averett graduated with a B.A. in Latin and classical archaeology from the University of Georgia in 1998 and earned her Ph.D. in classical archaeology at the University of Missouri-Columbia in the department of art history and archaeology in 2007. She specializes in early Greek art and archaeology and the archaeology of Cyprus, focusing on terracotta figurines in the Geometric and Archaic periods in the Eastern Mediterranean. Other areas of interest include Eastern Mediterranean religion and points of contact between the Near East and the Aegean.

Dr. Averett has excavated and traveled throughout the Mediterranean and was a fellow of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in Greece from 2002-2004. She recently published a chapter "The Ritual Context of the Malloura Figurines" in Crossroads and Boundaries: The Archaeology of Past and Present in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus, edited by M.K. Toumazou, P.N. Kardulias, and D.B. Counts, and is currently working on the publication monograph of the terracotta figurines dedicated at the rural sanctuary at Athienou-Malloura on Cyprus.

Poseidon and the Sea: Myth, Cult, and Daily Life at Joslyn
The first major museum exhibition to focus on Poseidon, this exhibition will explore the myths and iconography of the Greek god of the sea, while also looking at cult objects offered to him in his other guises. Featuring approximately 100 works from both domestic and international collections, Poseidon and the Sea will also examine the myriad ways in which life in the ancient Mediterranean world was tied to the sea. This exhibition has been organized by the Tampa Museum of Art.