The Fifth Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts January 29 & 30, 2010
Neighboring Voices: The Decorative Culture of Our Southern Cousins Presented by the Georgia Museum of Art and the Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts The University of Georgia Athens, Georgia
Neighboring Voices: The Decorative Culture of Our Southern Cousins The Fifth Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts January 29 & 30, 2010
The University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel Athens, Georgia
G
eorgia’s geographic location and its history as one of the original 13 colonies make the study of its material culture essential for understanding the American South. Certainly, the state’s decorative arts in particular exist in the context of other colonies and states, and our scholarship resonates with the work in those areas. To mark the first decade of the Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts and its symposia, we have invited representatives from our neighboring states to talk about their own research, collections and decorative-arts history. The center and symposium are named for Henry Derriel Green (1909– 2003). Green’s interest in antiques and the decorative arts began in the 1930s, a hundred years after the end of the period when Georgia’s artisans produced the furniture that became his passion. He helped organize the first exhibition of its kind, Southern Furniture 1640–1820, at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 1952, at a time when few imagined what the South’s cabinet makers were capable of. Green continued to discover and document examples of Piedmont furniture and disseminated his vast knowledge through exhibitions, forums and publications. His book “Furniture of the Georgia Piedmont Before 1830,” published in 1976 in conjunction with the exhibition at the High Museum of Art, quickly became a standard reference. Green’s example has inspired generations of scholars from diverse disciplines to examine and interpret the decorative arts and material culture of Georgia and the South. The Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts was established at the Georgia Museum of Art in 2000 to address a burgeoning interest in the decorative arts of Georgia and to promote scholarship in this heretofore little-studied area of the state’s history. With “Neighboring Voices,” the Green Center redefines the boundaries of Georgia from a political or geographic entity to an aesthetic influence to ensure that the center’s goals are broadly inclusive of the styles and traditions of regional decorative and architectural arts.
Friday
January 29, 2010 All events will take place at the Georgia Center, except where noted. Noon–7:00 p.m. Registration, Hill Atrium 1:00–4:00 p.m.
Tour of five historic houses on Milledge Avenue with refreshments. Bus departs from the Carlton Street entrance of the Georgia Center. Event included in activity fee.
5:30–6:45 p.m.
Cocktail Reception, Magnolia Ballroom Event included in activity fee.
7:00 p.m.
“Georgia on Our Minds: MESDA and the Discovery of Georgia’s Early Decorative Arts,” keynote lecture by Robert A. Leath, vice president of collections and research, Old Salem Museums and Gardens, Winston-Salem, N.C. Mahler Auditorium Free and open to the public. Sponsored in part by the Georgia Humanities Council. When the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) opened its doors to the public in 1965, Georgia was vastly underrepresented. The renaissance in Georgia decorative-arts studies was destined to begin a decade later with Henry D. Green’s groundbreaking book “Furniture of the Georgia Piedmont Before 1830,” followed by the exhibitions Neat Pieces: The Plain-Style Furniture of 19th-Century Georgia (1983) and Georgia’s Legacy: History Charted Through the Arts (1985), which brought new objects to light. Simultaneously, but quietly, the MESDA Research Center was hard at work reading primary documents to identify many early Georgia artists and artisans, efforts that culminated in the installation of a Georgia period room. New research has identified the original owner of Great Hall House in Warren County, Ga., and an itemized list of the house’s original furnishings. These discoveries and others point the way to a bright future for the study of Georgia’s vital artistic legacy.
Saturday
January 30, 2010 All events will take place at the Georgia Center. Lectures will take place in Mahler Auditorium. 8:30 a.m.
Registration, Hill Atrium
9:00 a.m.
Welcome, William U. Eiland, director, Georgia Museum of Art
9:10 a.m.
Opening Remarks, Linda Chesnut, chair, Decorative Arts Advisory Committee, Georgia Museum of Art
9:20 a.m.
“Wood as Canvas: The Paint-Decorated Furniture of Piedmont North Carolina,” June Lucas, director of research, Old Salem Museums and Gardens, Winston-Salem, N.C. During the last 50 years, furniture historians have published numerous books and articles on late-18th- and early-to-mid-19th-century furniture produced in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, but few focus on the paint-decorated examples that brightened many Piedmont interiors. Lucas will present an overview of the known groups of paint-decorated furniture from the region and discuss the evolution of style. From the earliest Pennsylvania-inspired dower chests made in Rowan and Alamance Counties to late-19th-century Catawba River Valley cupboards depicting polychrome religious motifs, the paint-decorated furniture of Piedmont North Carolina reflected the ethnic backgrounds, regional or national style preferences and purely idiosyncratic decorative choices of its creators and owners.
10:05 a.m. “Georgia-Flavored Pottery: The Influence of Georgia Potters on Alabama Pottery,” Joey J. Brackner, director, Alabama Center for Traditional Culture, Montgomery, Ala. Brackner will give a brief overview of Alabama folk pottery, emphasizing the contributions of Georgians to that state’s pottery heritage, including those Edgefield potters who worked in Georgia and moved to Alabama, the historic pottery regions of Rock Mills and Oak Level near the Georgia–Alabama border and early Georgia-born potters who helped create some of Alabama’s best-known pottery regions.
10:50 a.m. Break 11:10 a.m. “Rev. John Mood: Profile of a Southern Antebellum Silversmith,” Charlotte Crabtree, independent scholar, dealer and author, Charleston, S.C.
Saturday, January 30, 2010—continued More silversmiths worked within the South during the antebellum period than at any other time in history, and every artisan’s story influences our perceptions of the whole group. Rev. John Mood, a third-generation silversmith working in Charleston, S.C., and Athens, Ga., is one such example. Public records, family documents, advertisements and wares from a 51-year career reveal Mood’s diverse role in his community, his response to the culture of the antebellum period, the dichotomy of his personal and professional lives and the nature of his business compared to those of his contemporaries.
1:15 p.m. “Looking for That Needle in a Haystack: Researching German Toys in American Childhood,” Mary Audrey Apple, independent scholar, Winston-Salem, N.C. Advertisements for German toys appeared in southern newspapers from the earliest years of the Republic. Friedrich Romain in Cassel, Germany, sent his son in Virginia dozens of small toys in a box in 1803, and the small wares shop in Salem, N.C., carried Nuremburg toys by 1804. These rare references only hint at the diversity and volume of children’s toys coming into stateside ports. Simple, fragile and by today’s standards crude, few of these toys have survived. Research into their importation can provide accurate illustrations of an important segment of the material culture of childhood, as well as offer a close look at an international network of production and trade.
2:00 p.m. “Vieux Paris? Vieux Limoges?—Questioning Assumptions About French Porcelain in the Antebellum South,” Robert Doares, independent scholar, Williamsburg, Va. Doares will reevaluate unmarked, mid-19th-century French porcelain through his interpretation of two recently discovered factory books from the earliest years of the Haviland porcelain works of Limoges. Shape drawings from a mysterious volume at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as paintings and prints from a design book preserved in the Haviland family, prove that many anonymous pieces of “Old Paris” china in private and public collections are really Limoges porcelains designed, decorated and distributed by New York entrepreneur David Haviland, who settled in France in the 1840s and revolutionized continental porcelain production and marketing.
2:45 p.m. Break 3:05 p.m. “Gone Lock, Stock and Barrel: Kinfolks at Home in Alabama,” Daniel Brooks, director, Arlington House, Birmingham, Ala. After Andrew Jackson defeated the Creeks in 1814, settlers struck with “Alabama fever” left their families in Georgia and other seaboard states to travel west to “a new home in the wide wild wilderness of Alabama.” Planters and politicians joined plain folk to forge a new life melding influence, experience and cultural
Saturday, January 30, 2010—continued traditions from their old home states. This presentation tells the richly illustrated story of five illustrious Georgia families who migrated to a “rich new world” and made significant contributions to the development of an “alluring Alabama.”
3:50 p.m. Discussion 4:10 p.m. Closing Remarks, Dale L. Couch, adjunct curator of decorative arts, Georgia Museum of Art Accommodations The Georgia Museum of Art is closed for construction and will reopen in January 2011. All symposium activities will take place at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education. The Georgia Center is offering a special rate for symposium attendees, with rooms priced at $89–109 for bookings by January 6, 2010. Please call 1.888.295.8894 for reservations or visit www.georgiacenter.uga.edu. The University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education 1197 South Lumpkin Street Athens, GA 30602 Directions can be accessed at http://georgiacenter.uga.edu/hotel/directions.phtml. During your visit, parking will be available in the South Campus Parking Deck, located just north of the Georgia Center. Current rates are 50 cents for the first 30 minutes, $2 for the first hour, $2 for each additional hour, and a maximum of $10 for each 24-hour period parked. Additional parking may be available in university lots adjacent to the Georgia Center. Guests may take advantage of these free lots after 5 p.m. on Friday and throughout the weekend.
Museum Shop The Museum Shop will be open at the Georgia Center during the symposium, retailing copies of speakers’ titles, GMOA publications (including Green Symposium proceedings) and other related books and objects. The 2008 papers, “A Colorful Past: Decorative Arts of Georgia,” will be available at a special price of $25. A list of available publications is included in the registration packet. For other titles, which can be purchased online, please visit the Museum Shop by going to www.uga.edu/gamuseum and clicking on the gift bag.
Symposium Sponsors as of October 30, 2009 Dr. Larry H. and Mrs. Linda N. Beard The Family of William and Florence Griffin Robert S. Brunk Auction Services William Dunn Wansley in memory of Louis Dunn Gibson Wansley Georgia Humanities Council The University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education
The Fifth Henry D. Green Symposium of the Arts January 29 & 30, 2010 Neighboring Voices: The Decorative Culture of Our Southern Cousins Seating is limited and advance registration by mail or online is required. The registration deadline is January 15, 2010, and spaces will be filled in the order in which registrations are received. There will be no refunds after this date. This registration form can be accessed at www.uga.edu/gamuseum/calendar/green_symposium.html. Sponsorship: $1,500. The biennial Henry D. Green Symposium and its published proceedings are funded primarily by sponsorships and grants. Sponsors are an essential part of the Green Symposium; we invite you to become a sponsor of “Neighboring Voices.” Benefits include reserved seating for two at the keynote and symposium; all activities (described below); recognition in all publicity, printed materials and proceedings; patrons’ party; a copy of the 2010 symposium proceddings and a 1-year membership in the Georgia Museum of Art Director’s Circle. $1,150 is tax-deductible. Please contact the GMOA office of development at 706.542.1461 or bafowler@uga.edu for more information on sponsorships. Activity Fee: $125. Includes Friday afternoon bus tour of five historic houses on Milledge Avenue and refreshments, Friday evening cocktail buffet prior to the keynote lecture, Saturday symposium admission, breaks and Saturday buffet lunch. Symposium Fee: $35. Includes Saturday symposium admission and breaks. Students: $15. Includes Saturday symposium admission and breaks. Gift to the Green Center Endowment. Your tax-deductible gift supports the collections and programs of the Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts. PLEASE NOTE: Both activity and symposium fees cover direct perperson expenses (i.e., use of auditorium and refreshments) associated with the Georgia Center. Registration will be confirmed by mail or email. Registration packets, including tickets to all events, will be available for pickup in the Hill Atrium of the Georgia Center beginning at noon on January 29, 2010.
Registration Form (Please print clearly) This form can also be accessed online at www.uga.edu/gamuseum/calendar/green_symposium.html Name __________________________________________________________ (please indicate your name as it should appear on your nametag) Affiliation ______________________________________________________ Address _________________________________________________________ City, State, ZIP __________________________________________________ Phone __________________________________________________________ Email ___________________________________________________________ Enclosed: ____________ $1,500 Sponsorship (includes activities for two people) ____________ $125 Activity Fee (per person) ____________ $35 Symposium registration ____________ $15 Student registration ____________ Donation to the Green Center Endowment ____________ Total Please make checks payable to the UGA Foundation or pay by credit card: Card Number: ___________________________________________________ Type of Card: ________________________ Expiration Date: ____________ Name on Card: ___________________________________________________ Signature: _______________________________________________________ Please mail to: HGS Registration Georgia Museum of Art University of Georgia 90 Carlton Street Athens, GA 30602-1419
Georgia Museum of Art 90 Carlton Street Athens, GA 30602–1419
Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Athens, GA Permit no. 49