Symposium | The French Influence in Newport
From Newport Mansions:
The French Influence in Newport
Rosecliff and Marble House, Newport, Rhode Island, 6–7 November 2025
French art, architecture, design and cuisine permeated the lifestyles of the Gilded Age elite as they looked to the French aristocracy for inspiration. Richard Morris Hunt, the first American architect trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, modeled the architecture of Alva Vanderbilt’s Marble House after the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Horace Trumbauer’s inspiration for The Elms came from the 18th-century Château d’Asnières, while Stanford White’s design for Rosecliff incorporated elements of another Versailles palace, the Grand Trianon. Furniture maker and interior designer Jules Allard et Fils furnished Newport’s summer ‘cottages’ with treasures inspired by and imported from France, and French chefs created magnificent culinary confections. Learn about all of this and more during the symposium’s morning lectures and guided afternoon tours (Thursday at Rosecliff and Friday at Marble House). Registration includes special access to the exhibition Richard Morris Hunt: In a New Light at Rosecliff.
Scholarships are available to assist undergraduate and graduate students interested in attending the symposium.
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Speakers
• Keynote Speaker: Mathieu Deldicque, Chief Curator and Museum Director of Château de Chantilly
• Margot Bernstein, Private Collection Curator
• Becky Libourel Diamond, Food Culture Historian
• Leslie Jones, Director of Museum Affairs and Chief Curator, the Preservation Society
• Laura Bergemann, former Preservation Society Conservation Research Fellow and PhD candidate at Vanderbilt University
• Théo Lourenço, Preservation Society Curatorial Research Fellow
f r i d a y , 7 n o v e m b e r
Speakers
• Justine De Young, Associate Professor and Chair of the History of Art Department, Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY) in New York City
• Natalie Larson, Interior Textile Historian, Historic Textile Reproductions LLC
• Nadia Albertini, French Heritage Society Scholar, Franco-Mexican embroidery and textile designer
• Bob Shaw, HBO’s The Gilded Age Production Designer
Conversations | Regarding History: American Art in Perspective
From The Met:
Regarding History: American Art in Perspective
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1 November 2025
Join curators, academics, and artists to mark the end of the American Wing’s 100th anniversary with dynamic conversations and presentations that explore multilayered interpretations of American art and history. Discover how diverse institutions and individuals are bringing history to life for audiences through a variety of engaging approaches that activate digital technologies, showcase innovations in visual and material object-based displays, and center the power of place and the potential for contemporary artistic interventions. Presentations will be recorded and posted soon after the event on The Met’s YouTube channel.
Registration for in-person attendance is available here»
s c h e d u l e
11.00 Introduction — Sylvia Yount (Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing, The Met)
11.15 Keynote Conversation
• Edward Ayers (Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities and President Emeritus, University of Richmond)
• Christy Coleman (Executive Director, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation)
12.15 Break
1.30 Curatorial Roundtable
Moderated by Sylvia Yount
• Layla Bermeo (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
• Kathleen Foster (Philadelphia Museum of Art)
• Sarah Kelly Oehler (Art Institute of Chicago)
2.30 Artist Presentation — Titus Kaphar
3.00 Closing Remarks
Call for Papers | ASECS 2026 Session: Lighting the Enlightenment
A few sessions for next spring’s ASECS conference are still finalizing participants and hoping for submissions, including this one on “Lighting the Enlightenment.” Do get in touch with chairs right away if you have an idea (there may be a little wiggle room even with the late deadline).
Session | Lighting the Enlightenment:
Artificial Light and the Transformation of Cultural Practices
ASECS Annual Conference, Philadelphia, 9–11 April 2026
Proposals due by 3 October 2025
Chairs: Sophie Raux, Université Lumière Lyon 2, LARHRA, sophie.raux@9online.fr; and Marie Thebaud-Sorger, CNRS, Centre Alexandre-Koyré Paris, marie.thebaud-sorger@cnrs.fr
The renewal of theories of light in the eighteenth century, alongside the development of practices and uses related to the economy of lighting—such as lamps—contributed to shaping a metaphorical understanding of luminous phenomena within the broader discourse of rationalization that characterized the aptly named Age of Enlightenment. Artificial light came to be seen as a manifestation of humanity’s ability to overcome natural constraints, enabling the development of a wide range of practices—nocturnal sociability, theater, art academies, night work, domestic interiors—aligned with the transformation of material environments aimed at improving comfort, safety, and hygiene.
In recent years, interdisciplinary approaches have opened new avenues for research that move beyond literary or visual representations, emphasizing the role of material culture, technology, and sensory experience in shaping historical analysis. This panel invites proposals that explore how artificial lighting influenced, enabled, or transformed social, artistic, and literary practices. To what extent did innovations in lighting modify, inspire, or make possible such practices? What relationships emerged between technical innovation and artistic or literary creativity? How did artificial light affect the visual cultures of the Enlightenment? What were its implications for the history of vision and representation? We welcome contributions from a wide range of perspectives, including literary studies, theater studies, art history, the history of technology, the history of knowledge, and sensory studies. Special attention will be given to papers that reflect on methodological questions—for instance, the role of digital simulation or reenactment in reconstructing past sensory experiences. All submissions must be submitted through the Annual Meeting and Membership Portal.
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