2022 Elizabeth and Irwin Warren Folk Art Symposium
2022 Elizabeth and Irwin Warren Folk Art Symposium
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 themes of identity and nationalism.
FREE
Folk Art Museum online
May 22, 2022 | 1:00 pm
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Speaker details

See below for a full schedule of speakers and talks.

How to watch

Register in advance to access this event.

Presented by

American Folk Art Museum
New York, NY

About This Event

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.

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.

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 / photo by Schecter Lee.