The royal courts of the Classic Period (ca. 250-900 CE) in the Maya Lowlands undoubtedly sponsored some of the most iconic architectural and artistic creations in the ancient world. The Classic Maya artists, many now known by name, drew from deep ancestral traditions within Mesoamerica and practiced at the same time as makers from radically different but interrelated traditions across the Americas. The story of ancestral Maya art forms a central case study in the new book Arts of the Ancient Americas, coming out in October for Thames & Hudson’s World of Art series. This hemispheric treatment for general readers proceeds roughly from early to late, in four main parts. Overarching themes—the earliest art making, royal patrons and their artists, the arts of cities, and imperial arts—unite chapters addressing roughly contemporaneous case studies from across North, Central, and South America. Each chapter focuses on a regional investigation, placing different related traditions in conversation with comparative examples from other cultural areas. The goal of this thematic organization is to move away from strict geographical understandings of art traditions (divided by locations such as Mesoamerica, the Andes, etc.) that tend to isolate rather than celebrate commonalities. The chapters thus stand alone or spark connections with the others in each part. Each chapter addresses universal components of world art such as architecture, color, materiality, regalia, luminosity, performance, and visual parables, among others, to expand our understanding of what ancient American art was and who the creators were in these regions. Overall, Arts of the Ancient Americas hopefully provides readers with an updated consensus on important visual cultures employing interdisciplinary scholarship of archaeology, art history, epigraphy, and related fields.