Global Legacies of Arts and Crafts – A research symposium at Bard Graduate Center, New York City.

Organized by Antonia Behan (Queen's University, Canada)

Inspired by the British designer, craftsman, poet, and socialist William Morris (1834–98), the Arts and Crafts movement was a varied and ambitious set of values and practices reacting against mid-nineteenth-century industrialization, capitalism, and imperialism. It asserted the social value of making, challenged the hierarchy of fine and decorative arts, defended the livelihoods of artisans, and promoted the preservation of skilled knowledge. But the ambition, pugnacity, and passion of the Arts and Crafts movement was not limited to a single place or time. Although Arts and Crafts is often regarded as quintessentially British, its setting within the context of empire cannot be ignored, nor can its vexed relation to the very systems of globalizing power that were its central concerns. This symposium takes a topic and a figure familiar to all audiences of traditional decorative arts and design, but opens these to a radically new, global, diverse, and innovative perspective.

PROGRAM

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14
Location: Bard Graduate Center, 38 West 86th Street, New York 10024, Lecture Hall

9:00-9:10: Welcome and Introductions

9:10-9:30: Introduction: As It Is and As It Might Be

As It Is and As It Might Be: Historiography and Future Directions of Global Arts and Crafts
– Antonia Behan Queens University, New York City

9:30-10:30: SESSION 1: The Art of the People: Mingei its Colonial Legacies

From Eternal Beauty to Artistic Individuality: Arts and Crafts, Colonialism, and the Ceramics of Tomimoto Kenkichi and Hamada Shōji
– Meghen Jones, Alfred University

How ‘Pure’ Can a Crafted Work Be? A Post-Colonial View of the ‘International Arts and Crafts’ from a Taiwanese Perspective
– Louise Yu-Jui Yang, University of York

10:30-11:00: Coffee

11:00-12:30: SESSION 2: The Past is Not Dead: Central Europe and the Caucasus

The Arts & Crafts in Central Europe 1880-1930
– Paul Stirton, Bard Graduate Centre

To Tiflis and Beyond: Julijs Straume and Arts and Crafts in the Caucasus
– Sohee Ryuk, Columbia University

The Turn Yet Again? Arts and Crafts Resonance in New Design from Central Europe
– Michał Burdziński, Silesian Museum in Katowice

12:30-2:00: Break

2:00-3:30: SESSION 3: How Shall We Live, Then? Economies and Education

[Colonial Ceramics education in Nigeria]
– Ozioma Onuzulike, University of Nigeria

“It is better to help them help themselves”: Craft Development Projects with the Florida Seminole, 1930s-1960s
– Amanda Thompson, Bard Graduate Center

3:30-4:00: Coffee

4:00-5:00: Hopes and Fears: Discussion
Respondent: Wendy Kaplan, LACMA

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15
Location: Bard Graduate Center, 38 West 86th Street, New York 10024, Lecture Hall

9:00-9:10: Welcome and Introductions

9:10-10:30: SESSION 4: The Earthly Paradise: Narrating Labour and Materials

Of Making, Makers and Magic: The Politics of Skillful Doing in Narratives of Enchantment
– Siddharth Pandey, Fellow in Global Humanities, Käte Hamburger Centre for Advanced Study ‘Global Dis:connect’ (LMU), Munich

Truth to Global Resource Flows: An Ecocritical Perspective on Arts and Crafts Materials
– Kaja Ninnis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

10:30-11:00: Coffee

11:00-12:30: SESSION 5: The Last Gift: Tradition, Change, and Collecting in the Middle East and Silk Road

Tradition and Modernity in the Middle East: Observations on the Production of Decorated Metalwork during and after World War I
– Marcus Milwright, University of York

The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Empire, 1860-1948: William Arnold Stewart and Charles Robert Ashbee in Egypt and Palestine (1910s-1920s)
– Aurélie Petiot, University of Paris Nanterre

Silk Road Expeditions in their Arts and Crafts Context
– Michelle C. Wang, Georgetown University

12:30-2:00: Break

2:00-3:30 SESSION 6: The Aims of Art: Arts and Crafts and Political Claims

“A terrible beauty is born”: Craft and Revolution in Ireland
– Joseph McBrinn, Belfast School of Art, Ulster University

Māori Arts and Crafts in Aotearoa New Zealand 1890-1940: An Indigenous legacy in the South Pacific?
– Conal MacCarthy, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University Wellington

3:30-4:00: Coffee

4:00-5:00: Signs of Change: Discussion
Respondent: Edward S. Cooke, Jr., Yale University

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Registration / Fee:
$15 General | $12 Seniors | Free for people with a college or university affiliation or museum ID, people with disabilities and caregivers, and BGC members.
Please register: https://www.simpletix.com/e/global-legacies-of-arts-and-crafts-tickets-140792

Contact: public.humanitiesbgc.bard.edu