Current and upcoming exhibitions, events
and professional opportunities
A selection of decorative arts activities not covered in the DAS Newsletter
For DAS events, go to: https://www.decartssociety.org/upcoming-programs.
Events
The DAS presented its awards and prize for 2023 publications in the decorative arts on November 12 in New York City. Details are in the fall 2024 newsletter.
Opportunities
Let the DAS know of employment openings, grants and related opportunities in the decorative arts. Send such information to newsletter@DecArtsSociety.org for publication here or in our newsletter, as appropriate.
Applications are open for the Summer School of the Victorian Society in America (VSA), the only national nonprofit organization dedicated to the historic preservation, protection, understanding, education and enjoyment of 19th-century heritage. The VSA has offered summer school programs for almost 50 years, based in Newport, RI, and London, addressing 19th- and early 20th-century architecture, design and the arts. Just over a decade ago, the VSA launched a third summer program based in Chicago that focuses on the American roots of Modernism. The summer programs are open to graduate students, academics, architects and enthusiasts. Full and partial scholarships are available for all three programs.
For more information about the summer programs and online applications, go to at https://victoriansociety.org/summer-schools/. All application materials are due by March 10, 2025.
Exhibitions
These events close between issues of the DAS newsletter and are listed by closing dates.
Hand in Hand: Works from the Fleur S. Bresler Collection
Fuller Craft Museum
Brockton, MA
https://fullercraft.org
Through March 23, 2025
Hand in Hand: Works from the Fleur S. Bresler Collection presents the recent donation of craft objects gifted to the Fuller Craft Museum by philanthropist Fleur S. Bresler. Bresler, an avid and longtime collector of contemporary craft, has assembled a notable collection while supporting artists at all stages of their careers. Her 2023 donation includes works in multiple media by artists Mary Jackson, Anne Lemanski, Judy McKie, Richard Marquis, Merryll Saylan, Kay Sekimachi, Bob Stocksdale and more.
Mark Sfirri: The Flower Show
Michener Art Museum
Doylestown, PA
https://michenerartmuseum.org
Through May 4, 2025
Mark Sfirri has been preoccupied with turned wooden flowers, initially made for his son’s wedding, for more than two years. This exhibition brings springtime to the Michener Art Museum with his botanical works in various exotic woods, on twisting brass stems and in arrangements from custom-carved and turned bases.
Sfirri received BFA and MFA degrees in furniture design at the Rhode Island School of Design. His specialty is multi-axis spindle turning, an area he has been exploring since the early 1990s. He has lectured and demonstrated his techniques throughout North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Norway. His work is in the permanent collections of 28 public institutions, including the Michener Art Museum.
He is professor emeritus at Bucks County Community College, where he ran the Fine Woodworking Program from 1981–2017. He has received a Distinguished Educator Award from the Renwick Alliance (2010; Washington, DC), Lifetime Achievement Award from the Collectors of Wood Art (2012), and the Professional Outreach Program’s Merit Award from the American Association of Woodturners (2024).
The exhibition program is presented by Vivian Banta and Robert Field.
100 Years of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House
Royal Collection Trust
London, England
www.rct.uk
Throughout 2024
Throughout 2024, the Royal Collection Trust celebrates the 100th anniversary of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House at Windsor Castle.
The Dolls’ House was built between 1921 and 1924 as a gift from the nation to Queen Mary after the First World War. It went on display at Windsor Castle in 1925. The 1:12 scale replica of an Edwardian residence is complete with electricity, working elevators and running water. Rooms include a fully stocked wine cellar and “below-stairs” spaces, entertaining salons; objects include a tiny concert grand piano, fully strung and with functioning keys and miniature Crown Jewels inset with real diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds and seed pearls.
The kitchens and servants’ quarters feature a vacuum cleaner — a relatively new innovation in the 1920s; sewing machine with thread and minuscule scissors that can cut; and copper kettle made from a coin, with the king’s head still visible on its base.
Items were contributed by more than 1,500 artists, craftspeople and manufacturers of the day.
The room at Windsor Castle that was created for the Dolls’ House has also been re-presented to mark the anniversary. Designed by the house’s architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, it features murals by the decorative landscape artist Philip Connard with the artists Dorothy Cohen and Winifred Hardman.
A new publication, The Miniature Library of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House by Elizabeth Clark Ashby, explores the stories behind the creation of the Dolls’ House Library. The book includes a
foreword by the queen, as well as excerpts from selected works, some reproduced for the first time. Lucinda Lambton’s history of the Dolls’ House, first published in 2010, has been redesigned with newly photographed images.
Courses at the castle, in collaboration with the Royal School of Needlework, include a private tour of the Dolls’ House and hand-embroidery workshops inspired by the motifs on upholstery throughout the house. As Duchess of Cornwall, the queen became patron of the school in 2017.
To confirm whether exhibitions will be held as scheduled or for access to virtual versions, check the websites of museums and galleries before planning to visit in person.
Recent special invitations for DAS contributors
• In May 2023, DAS contributors were invited to an online presentation about Multiple Affinities: Art Botany in British Design Reform: 1835–1870 by Sarah Alford, assistant professor in craft history and theory at the Alberta University of the Arts (Canada). The program was presented by the Canadian Society of Decorative Arts/Cercle canadien des arts décoratifs (CSDA).
The program was part of the CSDA Sundays: The Expert Series — Multiple Affinities: Art Botany.
• In January 2023, DAS contributors received a special invitation to join The Antique in Print: The Classical Past and the Visual Arts in the Long 18th Century, a free online lecture hosted by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (New York, NY). Dr. Adriano Aymonino explored how the print culture of the “long 18th century” shaped the visual and allegorical language of Neoclassicism and placed Michel Angelo Pergolesi’s drawings and prints (Designs for Various Ornaments, 1777–1801) in context. Dr. Julia Siemon, curator of the Cooper Hewitt’s Mr. Pergolesi’s Curious Things: Ornament in 18th Century Britain, provided a brief overview of the exhibition.
• Contributors to the DAS were invited to explore the history and legacy of the Gorham Manufacturing Company by viewing the premiere of Chasing Silver: The Story of Gorham, a three-part documentary series from Rhode Island PBS Original (WSBE). The series aired in May 2021.
For more about the series, go to:
https://www.ripbs.org/blogs/bird-wire/chasing-silver-the-story-of-gorham/
Use this link for a livestream after each broadcast:
watch.ripbs.org/livestream or http://bit.ly/ChasingSilverVOD
• The DAS appreciates recent invitations from the UK Decorative Arts Society for our contributors to benefit from several online presentations:
√ Sarah Nichols presented “Glass: Venice, Venini and America.” She organized an exhibition about the relationship between Murano and America when she was chief curator and curator of decorative arts at the Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, PA).
√ Matthew Winterbottom, curator of decorative arts and sculpture at the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, UK), presented “The Colour Revolution: Art, Design, and Fashion in Victorian Britain.”
• Caitlin Condell, associate curator and head of the Department of Drawings, Prints and Graphic Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (New York, NY), and DAS former Program chair Emily M. Orr, assistant curator of modern and contemporary American design at Cooper Hewitt, presented “Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer.”
Known as the “poster king,” Kauffer was a pioneer of commercial art who integrated avant-garde style into modern life. While living in England between the two World Wars, Kauffer produced radical posters; a wide range of book covers, rugs, theatrical productions; and more. He continued his work in New York from 1940 until his death in 1954. The lecture provided a behind-the-scenes look at a newly released monograph and forthcoming exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum surveying Kauffer’s work.
