Exhibition | A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250
There’s no shortage of stimulating events marking this year’s 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, and readers will know this terrain much better than I. But for anyone tring to keep up, the following sites offer a useful starting place. –CH
• Ben Jureidini, “Is 2025 the Year of Jane Austen? From Society Balls to Blockbuster TV Shows, the 250th Anniversary of ‘Britain’s Greatest Author’ Is Set to Break Records,” The Tatler (6 January 2025). Miss Austen and The Other Bennet Sister on the BBC, a Dolly Alderton adaptation of Pride and Prejudice heading for Netflix, and a tourism boom for real-life regency balls, there’s something truly Austentatious about 2025. Link»
• “Worldwide Guide to Jane Austen 250th Events,” from the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, which focuses on the life and works of Jane Austen, as well as the Regency period in which she lived. Link»
• The Jane Austen Society, founded in 1940 by Dorothy Darnell with the purpose of raising funds to preserve the Cottage in the village of Chawton, Hampshire, where Jane Austen lived with her mother and sister Cassandra from 1809 to 1817. Link»
• The Jane Austen Society of North America, a non-profit organization staffed by volunteers and dedicated to the enjoyment and appreciation of Jane Austen and her writing. Link»
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Opening at The Morgan in June:
A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250
The Morgan Library and Museum, New York, 6 June — 14 September 2025
Organized by Dale Stinchcomb and Juliette Wells
Morning Dresses from Gallery of Fashion (London: N. Heideloff, 1798), figs. 198, 199 (New York: The Morgan Library & Museum; PML 5680).
A Lively Mind immerses viewers in the inspiring story of Jane Austen’s authorship and her gradual rise to international fame. Iconic artifacts from Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, England join manuscripts, books, and artworks from the Morgan, as well as from a dozen institutional and private collections, to present compelling new perspectives on Austen’s literary achievement, her personal style, and her global legacy.
Beginning as a teenager, Austen cultivated her imaginative powers and her ambition to publish. Encouraged by her family, especially her father and her sister Cassandra, she persevered through years of uncertainty. Her creativity found expression in a range of artistic pursuits, from music-making to a delight in fashion. The story of how Americans first encountered and responded to Austen’s novels, unbeknownst to her, emerges from four surviving copies of an unauthorized edition of Emma published during her lifetime. Following Austen’s death, family members preserved their memories of her, while carefully guarding what was publicly revealed. Austen’s audience continued to grow as those who loved her novels helped new generations of readers to appreciate them. In addition to celebrating Austen, A Lively Mind commemorates the landmark gift of Austen manuscripts to the Morgan in 1975 by Alberta H. Burke and draws extensively on the extraordinary collection she bequeathed to Goucher College in Baltimore.
A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250 is organized by Dale Stinchcomb, Drue Heinz Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts, and Juliette Wells, Professor of Literary Studies at Goucher College. It is made possible by generous support from the Drue Heinz Exhibitions and Programs Fund, Cynthia H. Polsky, Martha J. Fleischman, the Caroline Morgan Macomber Fund, the Lucy Ricciardi Family Exhibition Fund, and Alyce Williams Toonk.
Decorative Arts Trust Announces 2025 Failey Grants
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Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire is an outdoor history museum that preserves a neighborhood’s evolution of over 350 years, with most of the historic houses on their original sites. The Penhallow House—built in 1750 and moved to its present location in 1862—is Strawberry Banke’s only remaining ‘saltbox’. It was recently given a new foundation with a wet-proof basement to counteract rising sea and groundwater levels. In the 20th century, Penhallow House contained three apartments and the daily lives of an extended African-American family. Strawbery Banke intends to interpret the 20th-century Black experience in Penhallow House: the story of Kenneth ‘Bunny’ Richardson, a 20th-century story of Black Portsmouth and Civil Rights.
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From the December press release, with additional information available here:
Formal dress (robe à la Française), 1765–70, French or Dutch, brocaded silk with knotted silk fringe and linen lining (Historic Deerfield, HD F.355).
The Decorative Arts Trust is pleased to announce the seven 2025 Dean F. Failey Grant recipients: the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, AL, for the Silver & Ceremony from Southern Asia, 1850–1910 exhibition; Historic Deerfield in Deerfield, MA, for the Body by Design: Fashionable Silhouettes exhibition; Honolulu Museum of Art in Honolulu, HI, for quilt conservation; the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, PA, for flag conservation; Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH, for Penhallow House wallpaper; Telfair Museums in Savannah, GA, for The Moss Mystique: Southern Women and Newcomb Pottery exhibition; and Wyck in Philadelphia, PA, for a Chinese desk conservation.
The Failey Grant program provides support for noteworthy exhibition and object-based conservation projects through the Dean F. Failey Fund, named in honor of the Trust’s late Governor. Failey Grant applications are due October 31 annually.
Exhibition | Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900
Incense Burner in the Form of a Goose, Ming dynasty (1368–1644), early 15th century, bronze
(New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art).
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From the press release (9 January) for the exhibition:
Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 28 February — 28 September 2025
Shanghai Museum, 3 November 2025 — 8 March 2026
Curated by Pengliang Lu
In ancient China, bronze vessels were emblems of ritual and power. A millennium later, in the period from 1100 to 1900, such vessels were rediscovered as embodiments of a long-lost golden age that was worthy of study and emulation. This ‘return to the past (fugu) was part of a widespread phenomenon across all the arts to reclaim the virtues of a classical tradition. An important aspect of this phenomenon was the revival of bronze casting as a major art form. Opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on 28 February 2025, Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900 aims to be the most comprehensive study of Chinese bronzes during this period. This exhibition, co-organized by The Met and the Shanghai Museum, where it will open following its display in New York, will present the new aesthetic represented by these creative adaptations of the past, while exploring their cultural and political significance throughout China’s long history.
“While bronze as an art form has long held a significant role throughout China’s history, this exhibition explores an often-overlooked time period when a resurgence of craftsmanship and artistic achievements revitalized the medium,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “Bringing together major loans from institutions in China alongside works from The Met collection, this exhibition offers viewers an important opportunity to better understand the lasting aesthetic and cultural impact of bronze objects.”
The exhibition will be divided into five thematic and chronological sections that explicate over 200 works of art—an array of bronze vessels complemented by a selection of paintings, ceramics, jades, and other media. Some 100 pieces from The Met collection will be augmented by nearly 100 loans from major institutions in China, Japan, Korea, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States to present the most comprehensive narrative of the ongoing importance of bronzes as an art medium throughout China’s long history. Featured in the exhibition are around 60 loans from institutions in China, including major works such as a monumental 12th-century bell with imperial procession from the Liaoning Provincial Museum, documented ritual bronzes for Confucian temples from the Shanghai Museum, and luxury archaistic vessels made in the 18th-century imperial workshop from the Palace Museum, Beijing.
The exhibition begins with the section “Reconstructing Ancient Rites,” which introduces how emperors and scholar-officials commissioned ritual bronzes from the 12th to the 16th century as part of an effort to restore and align themselves with antique ceremonies and rites. The exhibition continues with “Experimenting with Styles,” illustrating how the form, decoration, and function of ancient bronzes were creatively reinterpreted from the 13th to the 15th century. The next section, “Establishing New Standards,” will explore further transformations in both the aesthetic and technical direction of bronze making from the 15th to the 17th century. The fourth section, “Living with Bronzes,” will feature a display in the Ming Furniture Room (Gallery 218) to demonstrate how bronzes were used in literati life from the 16th to the 19th century. The last section, “Harmonizing with Antiquity,” will examine how the deep scholarly appreciation of archaic bronzes during the 18th and 19th centuries led to a final flourishing of bronze production.
Pengliang Lu, Brooke Russell Astor Curator of Chinese Art at The Met, said: “This exhibition attempts a long-overdue reevaluation of later Chinese bronzes by seeking to establish a reliable chronology of this art form across the last millennium of Chinese history. The exhibition will also distinguish outstanding works from lesser examples based on their artistic and cultural merits.”
Later Chinese bronzes have long been stigmatized as poor imitations of ancient bronzes rather than being seen as fundamentally new creations with their own aesthetic and functional character. This exhibition redresses this misunderstanding by showcasing their artistic virtuosity, innovative creativity, and wide cultural impact. Through archaeologically recovered examples and cross-medium comparisons to a wide range of objects, the exhibition demonstrates the ongoing importance and influence of bronzes as well as how they inspired the form and function of works in other media. Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900 is curated by Pengliang Lu, Brooke Russell Astor Curator of Chinese Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The catalogue is distributed by Yale University Press:
Pengliang Lu, Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900 (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2025), 320 pages, ISBN: 978-1588397904, $65.
Exhibition | Luisa Roldán: Royal Sculptor
Adam Busiakiewicz noted the exhibition at Art History News a few weeks ago:
Luisa Roldán: Escultora Real
Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid, 29 November 2024 — 9 March 2025
Curated by Miguel Ángel Marcos Villán and Pablo Amador Marrero
Luisa Roldán, Virgen con el Niño (Sevilla, Convento de San José).
Esta exposición permitirá al visitante adentrarse en una vida apasionante. Luisa Roldán (1652–1706) aunó excelencia, versatilidad y habilidad para romper las barreras de género y llegar a lo más alto como artista: fue nombrada escultora del rey por Carlos II, cargo que mantuvo con Felipe V. Además, fue la primera artista española en ingresar en la Academia de San Lucas en Roma, un hito nunca antes alcanzado por escultores hispanos.
Pero Luisa Roldán: Escultora real también es el producto de una reivindicación y de una necesidad de hacer presente la trayectoria de una de las más destacadas artistas españolas. De hecho, nunca cayó en el olvido y autores como Antonio Palomino (quien la conocería personalmente), Antonio Ponz o Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez alabaron su obra. Sin embargo, el hecho de que fuera considerada por muchos como autora de menor calidad que su padre, identificando con él buena parte de su producción, ha pesado en algunos de los estudios que se realizaron sobre su figura. Como también que se le adjudicaran sobre todo obras de devoción, delicadas y de pequeño formato en barro cocido, «más propias de su condición y sexo», según autores como el propio Ceán Bermúdez, dejando en un lugar secundario su rica y extraordinaria producción de obras en madera y de mayor formato.
La dedicación de Luisa Roldán al oficio de la escultura sólo fue posible por su nacimiento en el seno de una familia dedicada a esta disciplina. Su padre, Pedro Roldan fue el gran artista del mercado sevillano y de buena parte del andaluz durante la segunda mitad del siglo XVII. La artista, cuyas dotes para el oficio se desvelaron en época muy temprana, heredó de él la inquietud por el mejor conocimiento del arte. Tras dejar el taller paterno se estableció en Sevilla junto a su marido, Luis Antonio de los Arcos. De allí se trasladaron a Cádiz, metrópoli comercial del momento, y posteriormente el matrimonio y sus hijos fijaron su residencia en Madrid. Allí la escultora pudo entrar al servicio de la Corte, alcanzando el mayor éxito y reconocimiento al que cualquier artista de la época podía aspirar.
Miguel Ángel Marcos Villán and Pablo Amador Marrero, Luisa Roldán: Escultora Real (Valladolid: Museo Nacional de Escultura, 2024), €40.
The Courtauld Announces New Manton Centre for British Art
From the press release earlier this fall (6 August 2024) . . .
The Manton Foundation has donated $12 million to The Courtauld to create the Manton Centre for British Art. The Centre, named after British art collectors and philanthropists, Sir Edwin Manton and Florence, Lady Manton, will help secure The Courtauld’s ambition of becoming a world leader in the field of British art and marks the continued commitment of the Manton family to arts education.
The Manton Centre for British Art will serve as an intellectual hub for art historians, curators, critics, artists, and students nationally and internationally, providing a platform for sharing world-leading research and for teaching the next generation of British art specialists. Located initially at The Courtauld’s current campus at Vernon Square, the Manton Centre will later be housed in the purpose-designed premises at Somerset House, providing the physical and intellectual home for The Courtauld’s research and teaching on British art. The Courtauld’s specialists in British art will become members of the Centre and help shape its activities and development. The Centre will operate as the base for students taking modules in British art as part of their MA degree and also provide a home for The Courtauld’s PhD students researching British art.
Professor Mark Hallett, Märit Rausing Director, said: “This is a thrilling moment for The Courtauld. Our new Manton Centre will place British art in a global context, and aim to deliver truly world-class teaching and research in this rich, endlessly fascinating field of study. The Centre will support students through a generously endowed programme of scholarships, and offer a dynamic programme of activities and events across the year. We are hugely grateful to the Manton Foundation for their generous gift, which will enable us to support the very best new thinking and teaching on British art for generations to come.”
Julia Krapf and Sandy Niles, Trustees of The Manton Foundation, said: “After a visit to The Courtauld and several discussions with its leadership and faculty, we came away impressed by the dedicated academic training offered to students interested in British art, including the period of most interest to our grandparents. We are excited and motivated by the opportunity to help The Courtauld strengthen and formalize its research capacity in that area.”
The Centre will present an ambitious and dynamic programme of events including:
• An annual lecture in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton
• An annual international conference devoted to a major topic in the field
• Regular workshops devoted to specific areas of British art
• An annual programme of seminars and lectures enabling scholars, curators, critics, and artists to share their thinking and research
• An annual ‘scholar in residence’ programme, designed to host a leading figure in the field of British art
The Manton Centre for British Art will also pursue collaborations with other scholarly and artistic institutions both in the UK and around the world. In pursing these collaborations and partnerships, the Centre will engage with all areas and periods of British art, and with a wide range of partners and interlocutors.
Print Quarterly, December 2024
The long eighteenth century in the latest issue of Print Quarterly:
Print Quarterly 41.4 (December 2024)
a r t i c l e s
Nicholas de Courteille, presumably after Jean Pierre Bouch, Jean Charles Pierre Lenoir, 1779, soft-ground etching, 308 × 235 mm (Paris, Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris).
• Dorinda Evans, “Jean Pierre Bouch, A Rediscovered Polymath”, pp. 394–407. This article attempts to compile the real identity and life story of the French artist Jean Pierre Bouch (1765–1820), whose diverse career included being a balloonist and pyrotechnician as well as portrait artist.
n o t e s a n d r e v i e w s
• Christian Rümelin, Review of Jean-Gérald Castex, ed., Graver pour le Roi: Collections Historiques de la Chalcographie du Louvre (Louvre éditions and Lienart éditions, 2019), pp. 434–37.
• Evonne Levy, Review of Bettina Wassenhoven, Gravuren nach Skulpturen – Skulpturen nach Gravuren (Konigshausen & Neumann, 2021), pp. 437–38.
• Simon McKeown, Review of Rosa de Marco and Agnès Guiderdoni, eds., Eliciting Wonder: The Emblem on the Stage (Librairie Droz, 2022), pp. 438–41.
• Clarissa von Spee, Review of Anne Farrer and Kevin McLoughlin, eds., The Handbook of the Colour Print in China, 1600–1800 (Brill, 2022), pp. 441–45.
• Nicholas JS Knowles, “The First British Caricature in Aquatint?,” pp. 445–47.
• Bénédicte Maronnie, Reviews of Chiara Casarin and Pierluigi Panza, eds., Giambattista Piranesi: Architetto senza tempo / An Architect out of Time (Silvana Editoriale, 2020); Moritz Wullen and Georg Schelbert, eds., Das Piranesi-Prinzip (E.A. Seeman Verlag, 2020); and Carolyn Yerkes and Heather Hyde Minor, Piranesi Unbound (Princeton University Press, 2020), pp. 469–73.
b o o k s r e c e i v e d
• Jennifer Milam and Nicola Parsons, eds., Making Ideas Visible in the Eighteenth Century (University of Delaware Press, 2021), p. 460.
• Ian Haywood, Queen Caroline and the Power of Caricature in Georgian England (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), p. 460.
Exhibition | In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom
From the press release for the exhibition, recently covered by Jennifer Schuessler for The New York Times:
In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC, 13 December 2024 — 8 June 2025
Other venues will include museums in Belgium, Brazil, England, Senegal, and South Africa
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) recently unveiled its first international touring exhibition, In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World. Through powerful forms of artistic expressions, such as quilting, music and ironwork, the exhibition reveals healing traditions rooted in the resilience of enslaved people. Featuring more than 190 artifacts, 250 images, interactive stations, and newly commissioned artworks, In Slavery’s Wake offers a transformative space to honor these legacies of strength and creativity.
“This global exhibition is a profound journey through the African diaspora, reflecting on our shared history and envisioning a future shaped by resilience and freedom,” said Kevin Young, Andrew W. Mellon Director, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. “It beautifully intertwines the past and present, inviting visitors to experience our heritage’s multilingual, multinational, and forward-looking spirit. This show reflects not just the impact of slavery but a celebration of the freedom-making efforts of the enslaved and abolitionists, embodying the humane and interconnected world we live in today.”
In Slavery’s Wake reckons with the impact of slavery and colonialism on present-day societies around the world and explores the often-overlooked efforts of the enslaved to force the end of slavery with legal emancipation and abolition as well as to provide a wellspring for descendants to draw upon to help create a better world for themselves and their communities through art, storytelling, music, protest, and communal healing. It delves into key questions about freedom and its expressions across six sections.
Organized by the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Center for the Study of Global Slavery and the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University, the exhibition grew out of a decade-long collaboration between international curators, scholars, and community members who were committed to sharing stories of slavery and colonialism in public spaces. The collective worked across geographies, cultures, and languages, connecting the past and the present.
After its close in Washington, the exhibition will travel to museums in Belgium, Brazil, England, Senegal, and South Africa. Curatorial partners from each location contributed stories, objects and oral histories that reflect their local communities within this global history. It also incorporates a new collection of more than 150 oral histories filmed at each partner site, titled Unfinished Conversations. Voices from this international archive of everyday people’s memories and stories are featured throughout.
Paul Gardullo, Johanna Obenda, and Anthony Bogues, eds., with a foreword by Lonnie G. Bunch III, In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2024), 240 pages, ISBN: 978-1588347794, $40.
New Book | Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully
From Lienart:
Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, ed., Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully (1725–1779): Un grand amateur à l’époque des Lumières (Paris: Lienart éditions, 2024), 488 pages, ISBN: 978-2359064186, €55. With contributions by Lionel Arsac, Géraldine Aubert, Colin Bailey (foreword), Vincent Bastien, Mathieu da Vinha, Patricia de Fougerolle, Mathieu Deldicque, Vincent Droguet, Alexandre Maral, Marc-André Paulin, Alexandre Pradère, Yohan Rimaud, and Xavier Salmon.
Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully (1725–1779) fut l’une des figures les plus brillantes et les plus attachantes du monde des grands amateurs français de la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle. Mécène et ami des artistes de son temps, collectionneur, graveur, musicien et historien, il fut élu, très jeune, membre honoraire ou associé libre de l’Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, en raison de la qualité des collections qu’il avait réunies et aussi de ses capacités artistiques. Avec le concours des meilleurs spécialistes, cet ouvrage a pour ambition d’embrasser l’ensemble des collections de ce « dénicheur de talents » dans des domaines très divers—peintures, arts graphiques, sculptures, mobilier et objets d’art, livres, coquilles, instruments de musique—collections qui constituent autant de témoignages de son immense curiosité, de son ouverture d’esprit et de sa générosité envers les artistes. Il met également en lumière les milieux familial et intellectuel si stimulants dans lesquels il a baigné et qui expliquent, à bien des égards, la formation de son goût si raffiné et de son extrême sensibilité artistique.
Marie-Laure de Rochebrune est conservateur général au château de Versailles.
New Book | Coade Stone
From Springer:
Howell Edwards and Christopher Brooke, Coade Stone: A History and Analysis (New York: Springer, 2024), 275 pages, ISBN: 978-3031714313, $110.
The history and nature of artificial stone for use in architecture is a subject still shrouded in myth and misconception. This book aims to lay bare those misconceptions and present a scientific and architectural account of these materials, and especially Coade Stone, the most successful of all, which found great favour during the Georgian period. Many examples of Coade Stone cast sculpture still exist and several key examples are presented in context and as case studies . Eleanor Coade’s artificial stone was so good that many observers could not distinguish it from the natural stone it replaced: the growth in replication of the neo-classical statuary and building adornment required in the late Georgian and Regency period was well satisfied by the use of Coade stone. A holistic evaluation of Coade stone artefacts is undertaken whereby the use of analytical data, historical documentation, invoices, company records, impressed marks and expert connoisseurship will establishthe attribution of Coade stone artefacts, some of which are currently in the unknown category. Several new scientific analyses are presented that demonstrate the true nature of high temperature fired ceramic Coade Stone and allow comparison with other forms of artificial stone, such as the cold cured cementitious variations, which eventually replaced it in the Victorian period.
Howell G. M. Edwards is Professor Emeritus of Molecular Spectroscopy at the University of Bradford. He read Chemistry at Jesus College in the University of Oxford and after completing his BA and BSc degrees he studied for his doctorate in Raman spectroscopy at Oxford with Dr Leonard Woodward and then became a Research Fellow at Jesus College, University of Cambridge. He joined the University of Bradford as a Lecturer in Structural and Inorganic Chemistry, becoming Head of the Department of Chemical and Forensic Sciences, and was awarded a Personal Chair in Molecular Spectroscopy in 1996. He has published over 1350 research papers in Raman spectroscopy and the characterisation of materials, along with six books on the application of this analytical technique to art, archaeology, and forensic science. He has had a lifelong interest in porcelains and the industrial archaeology, excavation, and the preservation of early porcelain manufactory sites.
Christopher J. Brooke studied for a BSc (Hons.) in Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bradford, specializing in geophysics, environmental archaeology, and palaeopathology, followed by a PhD at the University of Nottingham in the field of archaeological remote sensing for historic buildings analysis. He has worked in a wide range of organizations from central and local government, through university teaching appointments and industry, a major charity, and freelance consultancy. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, an Associate Fellow of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society, and a member of many professional organizations both nationally and in the UK East Midlands, he serves on a large number of advisory boards and committees. Dr Brooke’s principal research specializations are in electromagnetic remote sensing, nondestructive archeological site survey, record photography, mathematical image processing, environmental study, spectroscopy, the history and archaeology of churches, and the recording and conservation of historic buildings. He has lectured extensively at academic institutions throughout the UK and is currently Honorary Associate Professor in Medieval History and Church Archaeology at the University of Nottingham, and Visiting Fellow in Remote Sensing at Nottingham Trent University.
c o n t e n t s
1 Introduction: Coade Artificial Stone and Its Marks
2 Factors That Influenced the Success of Coade Stone
3 Artificial Stone: The Precursors, Contemporaries, and Later Variations of Coade Stone
4 Historical Myths and Anomalies Associated with Coade Stone
5 The Mineralogy of Fired Ceramics
6 The Analysis of Coade Stone Artefacts
7 Case Studies: Coade Stone
8 Conclusions
Appendices
Glossary
Index
Drayton Hall Awarded Decorative Arts Trust Funding Prize
From the press release (25 November 2024) . . .
Drawing Room Ceiling, Drayton Hall (Charleston, South Carolina; photo by Willie Graham).
The Decorative Arts Trust is thrilled to announce that the 2024 Prize for Excellence and Innovation will be awarded to Drayton Hall Preservation Trust in Charleston, South Carolina, for projects to include the conservation of the plaster ceiling in the house’s Great Hall, the investigation of the plaster ceiling in the Drawing Room, and digital and in-person access to these spaces during conservation treatment and the results of the interventions. Drayton Hall, built 1738–50, is the earliest example of Palladian architecture in the United States. Surviving in relatively untouched condition, and displayed devoid of furnishings, Drayton Hall offers architectural historians the rare opportunity to study materials and designs from every period in the house’s history.
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 for a scholarly endeavor, such as museum exhibitions, print and digital publications, conservation and preservation projects, and online databases. Past recipients include the Concord Museum; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive; and Craft in America.
More information about the Prize for Excellence and Innovation is available here»
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