Decorative Arts Trust Grant to Support Study of Frames at AGO
From the press release (1 December 2023). . .
Italian Tabernacle Frame, 1600s, tortoiseshell, bone or ivory, and wood. (Toronto: AGO, gift from a private collector, 94/994).
The Decorative Arts Trust is pleased to announce that the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto, Canada, will serve as our 2024–26 Curatorial Internship Grant partner. The Decorative Arts Trust underwrites curatorial internships for recent Masters or PhD graduates in collaboration with museums and historical societies. These internships allow host organizations to hire a deserving professional who will learn about the responsibilities and duties common to the curatorial field while working alongside a talented mentor.
This intern will focus on a type of material culture that links the decorative and fine arts: frames. The AGO is home to one of the largest collections of historic frames in the world, currently amounting to well over 1,200 examples. The collection is expansive in terms of both chronology and geography, ranging from the late 1400s to the early 1990s, and with fine frames from France, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, the Americas, and Asia. The AGO’s goals are twofold: to study the history of frame making to preserve knowledge at a moment when most experts in the field are currently retiring; and to pair paintings and frames to show artwork within a surround that was made in the same region and time period.
Under the mentorship of Caroline Shields, Curator, European Art, and Adam Harris Levine, Associate Curator, European Art, the intern will research and catalogue the AGO’s holdings and assist in making the collection available to the public online. They will work to pair paintings with frames that are chronologically and geographically suited, and they will facilitate the loan of frames to peer museums. The intern’s term will begin in May 2024, when the AGO hosts an international conference, Many Lives: Picture Frames in Context, featuring keynote speakers Hubert Baija, Senior Frames Conservator, and Lynn Roberts, Frame Historian. As part of their tenure at the AGO, the intern will help prepare the conference papers for a digital publication.
A formal call for applications for the internship will be posted early in 2024. Current and recent graduate students who are interested in this opening are encouraged to visit AGO’s website at ago.ca for updates.
Concord Museum Awarded Funding Prize by Decorative Arts Trust
Visitors viewing powder horns on display in the April 19, 1775 gallery at the Concord Museum, the recipient of the 2023 Decorative Arts Trust Prize for Excellence and Innovation, which includes an award of $100,000.
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Press release (16 November 2023) from The Decorative Arts Trust:
The Decorative Arts Trust is thrilled to announce that the 2023 Prize for Excellence and Innovation was awarded to the Concord Museum in Concord, Massachusetts, for their exhibitions and publication commemorating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution in 2025–26.
The Concord Museum’s initiative will feature a series of three special exhibitions showcasing the stories of individuals, families, and communities during the American Revolution. Focused on the theme of “Whose Revolution,” the special exhibitions will explore themes of liberty, community, and memory, tracing the continued legacy of the Revolution today. The Museum will also create a companion digital exhibition to extend the geographical reach of the exhibitions beyond Concord and promote further education and engagement. Additionally, the Museum will release the first major publication of its American Revolution collection, from flints and powder horns carried by militia soldiers to textiles, furniture, and ceramics that were valued and preserved for their role in witnessing a revolution.
The Concord Museum began in the 1850s as the private collection of local resident Cummings Davis, who gathered and preserved the relics of his friends and neighbors as a record of local history. The collection grew throughout the 19th century and was incorporated as the Concord Antiquarian Society in 1886, moving to a new building in 1930 and later becoming known as the Concord Museum. The Museum now houses a significant collection of over 45,000 objects, with particular strengths in the decorative arts from the 18th and 19th centuries, the American Revolution, transcendentalism, and other areas relating to Concord and New England history. The Museum recently completed a major building expansion and renovation of its permanent galleries, including new spaces for collections, education, and public programs.
The Decorative Arts Trust Prize for Excellence and Innovation, founded in 2020, funds outstanding projects that advance the public’s appreciation of decorative art, fine art, architecture, or landscape. The Prize is awarded to a nonprofit organization in the United States or abroad for a scholarly endeavor, such as museum exhibitions, print and digital publications, and online databases. Past recipients include Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive; and Craft in America.
Exhibition | Interwoven: Women’s Lives Written in Thread
Now on view at the Concord Museum:
Interwoven: Women’s Lives Written in Thread
Concord Museum, 29 September 2023 — 25 February 2024
Our current special exhibition, Interwoven: Women’s Lives Written in Thread, highlights needlework produced by young women in New England and specifically the extraordinary collection of samplers at the Concord Museum. Featuring 30 samplers sewn in the early 1700s to mid-1800s, Interwoven explores how young women created records of their own lives and experiences, written in thread.
Detail of Sampler by Phebe Bliss, 1749 (Concord, MA: Concord Museum, gift of Mrs. Richard D. Boyer, T18).
The exhibition explores the history of needlework and embroidery, its importance as an art form, and its significance to women in the 18th and 19th centuries. Intended to showcase young women’s accomplishments, the samplers also communicate details of their lives and education, their communities, and their families. The exhibition provides a unique view into their private lives. For most of these young women, their samplers are the only objects that survive from their lives. Many of the samplers have never been displayed before.
Learn about the education of privileged young women in the early republic and understand how wealth and enslaved labor enabled them to pursue decorative arts. Explore the materials used in constructing samplers, such as linens, dyes and silk, and how and where these materials were produced. View samplers that demonstrate how women recorded family history and the loss of loved ones through needlework. Understand how they incorporated the importance of community and a strong sense of place in their samplers. The gallery includes areas for hands-on and interactive activities. Exhibition programs connect the history of samplers to contemporary work through visiting artists, demonstrations, workshops, and more.
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