What comprises the field and study of “American folk art”? In the early twentieth century, scholars, curators, artists, and dealers developed the concept of folk art as an expansive and sometimes contradictory framework to characterize a vast array of works from paintings and sculptures to samplers, quilts, and furniture. This virtual symposium will present new research exploring the many perspectives through which the study of folk art is currently approached, looking in particular at historically overlooked or understudied relationships between themes of identity, nationalism, and American folk art.
To sign-up, please click here.
Drawing inspiration from the Museum’s wide-ranging MULTITUDES exhibition, talks will share new insights into 19th-century portraits and samplers, 20th-century quilts, and other artworks while revealing cross-disciplinary connections and expanded understandings of this field.
Objects of Inquiry: New Perspectives on American Folk Art is a symposium organized in honor of Elizabeth and Irwin Warren, dedicated advocates of the American Folk Art Museum (AFAM), and in connection with the exhibition MULTITUDES, which will be on view from January 21–September 5, 2022. The program will be held over Zoom between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 22, 2022.
Speakers include: Glenn Adamson, Ph.D., curator, writer, and historian, Mariah Gruner, Ph.D., Recentering Collections Curatorial Fellow at Historic New England, Joseph H. Larnerd, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Design History at Drexel University, Yinshi Lerman-Tan, Ph.D., Bradford and Christine Mishler Associate Curator of American Art at the Huntington, Janneken Smucker, Ph.D., Professor of History at West Chester University, and Trevor Brandt, Ph.D. Student in Art History at the University of Chicago, with opening remarks by Emelie Gevalt, Curator of Folk Art and Curatorial Chair for Collections at the American Folk Art Museum, and closing remarks by William D. Moore, Ph.D., Associate Professor of American Material Culture, Department of History of Art & Architecture and American & New England Studies Program, Boston University.
Read speakers’ abstracts and learn more about our speakers here.
Space is limited; advance registration is required. Please consider making a donation when you register to support ongoing virtual programming.
Instructions for joining with a Zoom link and password will be provided by email upon registration confirmation under “Additional Information.” Closed captioning will be provided in English. For questions or to request accessibility accommodations, please email publicprograms@folkartmuseum.org.
Schedule
1:00–3:00 p.m. | Session 1 Papers and Q&A
Welcome Remarks
Elizabeth Warren, President, American Folk Art Museum
Emelie Gevalt, Curatorial Chair for Collections and Curator of Folk Art, American Folk Art Museum and co-curator of MULTITUDES
Objects of Dispute
Glenn Adamson, Ph.D., curator, writer, and historian
High Style Folk Art and New Deal Values: Quilts in the Index of American Design
Janneken Smucker, Ph.D., Professor of History at West Chester University
Ghosts of a Whimsey’s Woodyard
Joseph H. Larnerd, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Design History at Drexel University
3:00 p.m. | Break (15 minutes)
3:15–5:00 p.m. | Session 2 Papers and Q&A
Stitching a Feminine Terrain: Authority, Property, and Home in American Schoolgirl Needlework
Mariah Gruner, Ph.D., Recentering Collections Curatorial Fellow at Historic New England
More than Memory: New Perspectives on the Klaus Stopp Fraktur Collection
Trevor Brandt, Ph.D. Student in Art History at the University of Chicago
Sheldon Peck: Radical Folk Artist?
Yinshi Lerman-Tan, Ph.D., Bradford and Christine Mishler Associate Curator of American Art at the Huntington
Closing remarks
William D. Moore, Ph.D., Associate Professor of American Material Culture, Department of History of Art & Architecture and American & New England Studies Program, Boston University
5:00 p.m. | Symposium concludes
Image: Mary Jane Smith (1833–1869) and Mary Morrell Smith (1798-1869), Log Cabin Quilt, Barn Raising Variation, Whitestone, New York, United States, 1861–1865, Cotton, wool, and silk, 74 × 81”, Gift of Mary D. Bromham, grandniece of Mary Jane Smith, 1987.9.1, Photo by Schecter Lee.
Support for 2022 public programs is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
