Call for Speakers Symposium: Reaching and Teaching Through Material Culture

On September 28-29, 2012, a symposium at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library will mark the 60th anniversary of Winterthur/University of Delaware graduate education. Speakers are not limited to Winterthur graduates and
will address the following topics:

* What to Collect & How to Maintain: Availability, Acquisition,Responsibility

* Technology and Accessing Collections

* Balancing Intellectual Relevance with Popular Interest

* The Role of Cultural Heritage Professionals in World Events.

The symposium will present subjects relevant to material culture and conservation. Speakers may be alumni of the Winterthur Program in American
Material Culture, the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (est. 1974), and from other institutions and programs.

The symposium structure will explore the topics through five-minute lightening rounds, twenty- to thirty-minute presentations, and discussion
with speaker panels. Please review the more detailed information on each topic in the complete Call at http://www.sowf.org/symposium2012.html.

Scholars and independent consultants, museum and allied professionals, and conservators are invited to submit a 100- to 200-word abstract for their proposed topic. Proposals are due February 27th for review by the Winterthur Fellows board; announcements will be made by March 19th. Please send abstracts via email to info@sowf.org. For general information about
the symposium, please visit http://www.sowf.org/symposium2012.
http://www.sowf.org/symposium2012>.

In addition, to highlight a broad spectrum of accomplishments in the
related fields, a silent “slide show” will present relevant institutional
and individual projects either underway or completed. All are invited to
apply by providing one digital image of yourself or your
institution/project/publication, etc., with up to five bullet points
outlining the goals/successes. Topics can relate to various aspects of
cultural management, including fundraising, institutional expansion, actual
or virtual exhibitions and public programs, art conservation, advocacy,
publication, and more. Please send submissions to the contact information
above by August 3rd, 2012.

Thank you,

Society of Winterthur Fellows Board

The symposium is sponsored by the Society of Winterthur Fellows

Rosemary T. Krill
Academic Programs
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
E-mail: rkrill@winterthur.org

winterthur.org

CFP: Texts and Textiles

A conference organised by the Centre for Material Texts
to be held 11-12 September 2012 at Jesus College, Cambridge

The shared origin of text and textile in the Latin texere, to weave, is a critical commonplace. Many of the terms we use to describe our interactions with words are derived from this common linguistic root, and numerous other expressions associated with reading and writing are drawn from the rich vocabulary of cloth. Textiles are one of the most ubiquitous components of material culture, and they are also integral to the material history of texts. Paper was originally made from cotton rags, and in many different cultural and historical settings texts come covered, wrapped, bound, or decorated with textiles. And across the domestic, public, religious, and political spheres, textiles are often the material forms in which texts are produced, consumed, and circulated.

In the light of the CMT’s current research theme on ‘the material text in material culture’, we invite papers which consider any of the many dimensions of the relationship between texts and textiles. There are no historical, geographical, or disciplinary limitations. Areas to be addressed could include:

the shared language of texts and textiles

construction and deconstruction: to weave, spin, stitch, knit, stitch, suture, tie up or together, piece, tailor, gather, fashion, fabricate, mesh, trim, stretch, wrap, unfold, unpic
challenges and problem-solving: knots, tangles, holes; to lose the thread, iron out creases, unravel, cut, keep on tenterhooks
pieces and fragments: rags, patches, patchwork, scraps, strands, threads, rhapsodies, patterns, seams, loose ends, layers

the stuff of books

bookbindings and covers
incunabula – ‘swaddling clothes’
medieval girdle books, book chemises
paper and paper-making
cutting, sewing, and stitching in and on books
scrapbooks, albums, collages
book ribbons and bookmarks
carpet pages
textiles in illustrations, frontispieces, title pages

textile texts

needlework and words: tapestry, embroidery, samplers, quilts, hangings, carpets, banners
the needle and the pen
printed textiles
sacred/religious texts and textiles
love-tokens, keepsakes, charms, and relics
cushions, badges, handkerchiefs, flags, scarves, uniforms, livery and other textual/textile ephemera
professional and amateur work
relationships and networks of gifts, patronage, exchange
pattern books, sample books, costume books

Proposals of up to 250 words for 20-minute papers should be sent to Jason Scott-Warren (jes1003@cam.ac.uk) and Lucy Razzall (lmfr2@cam.ac.uk) by 30 April 2012

CFP: "Objects in Motion," Material Culture Review

Call For Papers: "Objects in Motion"

Material Culture Review (MCR) invites contributions to its special issue "Objects in Motion," which takes up the 2011-2012 theme of Yale University's Material Culture Study Group. A forum for scholars to engage with artifacts, ideas and methodologies, Yale's Material Culture Study Group is currently exploring the ways that the movement, dispersion, renewal or adaptation of cultural objects shapes our relationships with material and social practices. Movement, in this sense, is not confined to a set of prescribed spatial parameters; some objects of focus traverse transnational boundaries (as is the case within today's globalized economy) while others are examined for their movement between or within local contexts. Some are designed or adapted for portability inside the domestic sphere. Extending this dialogue, we invite a broad range of papers that consider how objects accrue cultural meaning through their mobility.

Topics may include, but are not restricted to the following themes:

- Accumulation / circulation of objects within private or institutional collections
- Cultures of repurposing, re-using or "up-cycling" goods
- Histories of Design and Decorative Arts as they relate to mobility
- Impact of commodity flows on localized cultures
- Architectural adaptations, renovations and revitalizations
- Dissemination of knowledge through print cultures
- Cross-cultural material exchange / encounter
- Circulation of knowledge through intangible cultural heritage
- Social impacts of transportation technologies
- Souvenirs and cultural tourism

Contributors from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds are invited to submit articles, research reports or exhibition reviews that address the theme of "Objects in Motion."

The deadline for an expression of interest, consisting of a 300-word abstract and CV, is January 31, 2012. Completed work will be due April 15, 2012. Information about formatting and submission can be found at: http://culture.cbu.ca/mcr/submissions.html

Material Culture Review is distributed to over 250 universities, libraries, research institutions and museums in 15 countries. MCR seeks to provide a venue for refereed articles and reports encompassing a range of approaches to interpret culture through an analysis of people’s relationships with their material world. For more information, please visit: http://culture.cbu.ca/mcr

CFP: Nation Building: Craft and Contemporary American Culture, November 8-9, 2012, Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC

CALL FOR PAPERS

Renwick Gallery Symposium:
Nation Building: Craft and Contemporary American Culture

November 8-9, 2012
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Paper submissions from senior and emerging scholars are invited for this symposium, which will examine craft’s increasingly urgent role within contemporary American culture. Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the Renwick Gallery, American Art’s branch museum for contemporary craft and decorative arts, this program seeks to broaden the dialogue surrounding craft’s recent histories, and to articulate rapid changes to the field since the advent of the current century.

Scholarship is invited that complicates our understanding of modern craft as a response to mass culture, and that probes the evolution of the field beyond the studio movement. Investigations of post-studio practice, craft education, “craftivism,” DIY (Do-It-Yourself) and Slow movements, converging practices in craft, design, and contemporary art, and shifting attitudes towards technology, skill, and materiality are welcome. How making engages gender, identity, class, politics, economics, the environment, and everyday life are also possible subjects of inquiry. The title of this symposium references modern craft’s history as a regenerative (and often political) force in society, but also Hannah Arendt’s assertion that what fundamentally distinguishes us as a species is our capacity for “world-building.” The value of craft as evidence of diverse human agency is at the heart of this project. Ultimately, this program seeks a pluralist view of craft’s impact on the contemporary American experience.

Please email a two-page, double-spaced abstract (300-500 words) and short C.V. to Nicholas R. Bell, the Fleur and Charles Bresler Curator of American Craft and Decorative Art at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum at CraftSymposium@si.edu

Proposals must be received by April 2, 2012. Confirmed speakers will be required to submit the text of their 20-minute symposium presentations by October 8, 2012. A final text of the essay with endnotes will be due January 2, 2013, for possible publication in the symposium proceedings. The symposium will be available for viewing in a simultaneous and, later, an archived webcast.

CFP: Color, Commerce, and Consumption in Global Historical Perspective, German Historical Institute, June 21-23, 2012

Color, Commerce, and Consumption in Global Historical Perspective

Conference at the GHI
June 21 - 23, 2012
Convener: Regina Lee Blaszczyk

Call for Papers

Historians of business, technology, and industry have examined the role of the nineteenth-century German chemical industry in revolutionizing the production of dyes, paints, and pigments. We know a good deal about chemists, R&D directors, and managers in the global chemical industry, but we know less about how their color inventions and innovations had an impact on markets, product design, and consumer culture during the great industrial era that stretched from the 1850s through the 1970s.

This workshop seeks to attract scholars in various disciplines (including history, anthropology, art history, design history, sociology, and cultural studies) whose original research on broad historical topics (e.g., the history of marketing, the history of international business, the history scientific knowledge) touches on the history of color in some way. We hope to assemble a diverse group of scholars for an interdisciplinary dialogue that makes sense of the global history of color, consumption, and commerce in the 19th and 20th centuries. We welcome contributions from university scholars, museum curators, librarians and archivists, and independent researchers. We are particularly interested in papers that make innovative use of historical primary sources, such as corporate archives, trade and industry journals, import-export data, designers' diaries, notebooks, and correspondence, and advertising and marketing ephemera.

We welcome proposals on a range of topics, but are especially interested in new research about color as it relates to three major historical themes: markets and management, product design and development, and consumer culture.

Papers dealing with color, markets, and management might take some of the following approaches: Histories of the use of color in retailing, advertising, graphic design, and corporate branding; histories of marketing practice by the global chemical industry with regard to dyes, paints, varnishes, plastics, and pigments; studies of organizational, corporate, or individual efforts to standardize colors and to create color systems for managing the plethora of new color opportunities; the impact of management gurus such as Frederick Winslow Taylor or W. Edwards Deming on color decision makers; the transfer of color management practices and color systems from West to East and vice versa.

Papers on color in product design and development might consider the following topics: Discussions of how architects, interior designers, industrial designers, and fashion designers have used color in design, branding, and marketing; the impact of camouflage techniques on commercial color practice; the effects of new media technologies (e.g., chromolithography, television) on color practice in graphic design, advertising, packaging, and corporate identity.

Topics on color and consumer culture might include: Studies of how consumers have used color to engage or challenge mainstream discourses about commerce and consumption in interior decoration and fashion; debates over color pedagogy, taste, and visual perception; discussions of how consumers have used color to construct sub-cultural styles or discourses (e.g. Arts and Crafts, street styles); historical analyses of consumer responses to color in architecture, in trade shows, and at world's fairs; discussions of the cultural and symbolic meaning of color in relation to gender, class, ethnicity, and local, regional, or national identities.

Please send a paper title, a one-page abstract, and a one-page CV (preferably in pdf format) to Susanne Fabricius by February 15, 2012. Applicants will be notified by March 1, 2012. Workshop participants will be asked to circulate papers to fellow participants prior to the event. The workshop will consist of a keynote address on the first evening and two days of individual paper summaries and discussions. Expenses for travel (economy class) and accommodations in Washington will be covered, although we also encourage participants to defray travel costs with funds from their home institutions if possible.

CFP: Material Matters, Tenth Annual Material Culture Symposium for Emerging Scholars, 14 April 2012

Material Matters
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Saturday, April 14, 2012

The Center for Material Culture Studies at the University of Delaware invites submissions for papers to be given at the Tenth Annual Material Culture Symposium for Emerging Scholars.

Focus: Object-based research has the potential to expand and even reinvent our understanding of culture and history. In honor of the tenth anniversary of the MCSES, we seek a broad range of papers from emerging material culture scholars. Whether exploring the latest theories, viewing existing material through a new lens, or reinterpreting standing historical conversations with an object-based focus, proposed papers should exemplify the possibilities in material culture research. In exploring these material matters, we hope to promote an interdisciplinary discussion on the state of material culture studies today.

Disciplines represented at past symposia include American studies, anthropology, archaeology, consumer studies, English, gender studies, history, museum studies and the histories of art, architecture, design and technology. We welcome proposals from graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and those just beginning their teaching or professional careers.

Format: The symposium will consist of nine presentations divided into three panels. Each presentation is limited to twenty minutes, and each panel is followed by comments from established scholars in the field. There will be two morning sessions and one afternoon session, with breaks for discussion following each session and during lunch. Participants will also have the opportunity to tour Winterthur's unparalleled collection of early American decorative arts and to engage in a roundtable discussion on Friday, April 13. Travel grants of up to $300 will be available for presenters.

Submissions: The proposal should be no more than 300 words and should clearly indicate the focus of your object-based research, the critical approach you take toward that research, and the significance of your research beyond the academy. While the audience for the symposium consists mainly of university and college faculty and graduate students, we encourage broader participation. In evaluating proposals, we will give preference to those papers that keep a more diverse audience in mind.

Send your proposal, with a current c.v. of no more than two pages, to emerging.scholars@gmail.com.

Deadline: Proposals must be received by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, November 16, 2011. Speakers will be notified of the vetting committee's decision in January 2012.

Confirmed speakers will be asked to provide symposium speakers with digital images for use in publicity and are required to submit a final draft of their papers by March 5, 2012.

2012 Emerging Scholars Co-Chairs
Nalleli Guillen, Alison Kreitzer & Anne Reilly
Department of History, American Civilization Program
University of Delaware

Objects in Revolt: April 16, 2011

Always worth it. Program is here.

Material Culture Symposium for Emerging Scholars

Presented by the Center for Material Culture Studies at the University of Delaware and Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Winterthur, Delaware

Objects in Revolt
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Saturday, April 16, 2011

This annual symposium, organized entirely by University of Delaware graduate students, provides emerging scholars—graduate students and recent PhDs from a variety of academic disciplines as well as museum professionals—with a venue for interdisciplinary conversations centering on material culture. We encourage discussion across perceived boundaries of discipline, medium, and methodology; past symposia have included scholars and professionals from such fields as anthropology, art history, historical archeology, history, and American studies. Each fall, we welcome paper proposals from graduate students and professionals early in their careers on any topic related to material culture. Please see the Call for Proposals for compete details.

At the conference, distinguished scholars provide comments on the papers and lead discussion sessions. Participants also have the opportunity to participate in roundtable discussions and special tours of Winterthur’s collections with graduate students in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, including tours of the Winterthur library and conservation labs.

Online registration begins in March. This symposium is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact:

2011 Emerging Scholars Co-chairs
Virginia Garnett, Department of English
Theodore Triandos, Department of Art History
Alessandra Wood, Department of History, American Civilization
University of Delaware

emerging.scholars@gmail.com

Tangible Things, Harvard University, January 24-May 29, 2011

“Why do precisely these objects which we behold make a world?”–Henry David Thoreau

Tangible Things highlights and questions the modern Western intellectual categories that distinguish art from artifact, specimen from tool, and the historical from the anthropological in Harvard’s unparalleled museum and archival collections. The exhibition features nearly two hundred intriguing objects from across the University. Images are available upon request. Visitors begin in an orienting exhibition located in the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. There they are introduced to established ways of organizing tangible things and are challenged to classify a seemingly random assortment of objects according to these scholarly conventions. Where in the University do items like John Singer Sargent’s palette, the dress and beads of a Camp Fire Girl, a crystal ball, or a stuffed Bengal tiger belong? How about a century-old tortilla or the University’s President’s Chair? Where should they belong? Why? Armed with these questions visitors are invited to take part in a University-wide scavenger hunt to discover the many guest objects carefully inserted into the exhibitions of seven of Harvard’s public museums. As visitors fan out to discover these wandering items they will begin to realize that the meanings of things and the categories of knowledge and knowing based on those things are not as static or as natural as they may appear.

Tangible Things provides an excellent introduction to modes of classifying material things at Harvard and to the diverse things cared for in Harvard’s nearly fifty distinct collections. It also serves as the foundation for the innovative General Education course “Tangible Things: Harvard Collections in World History” (Spring 2011).

Curated by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, 300th Anniversary University Professor, Department of History; and Ivan Gaskell, Margaret S. Winthrop Curator and Senior Lecturer on History; with Sara Schechner, David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments; and Sarah Anne Carter, Lecturer on History and Literature. Organized by the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments.

For more information: http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/exhibitions/offsite/detail.dot?id=32778

Keeping It Real: Period Rooms as School Rooms

For those colleagues teaching material culture this fall: The New York Times's online commentary feature, "Living Rooms," features University of Pennsylvania scholar Joan DeJean on the power of museum period rooms to contain and convey stories, "both stylistic and personal."

DeJean reviews the history--and thus changes--to this 1735 lavish room from the Château de Draveil now installed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The material culture of the space has been moved, separated, and imitated, but the installation still strikes visitors. One schoolchild remarked, "I like walking where other people have walked and thinking about the people who walked there before me."

Amen.