Initiatives in Art and Culture Conference Returns to New York City
Initiatives in Art and Culture (IAC) will hold its upcoming 20th Anniversary Conference on the Arts & Crafts Movement (September 20 – 23, 2018) in New York City and environs with a focus on New York as a hub for the Movement through creation / fabrication, patronage, education, exhibition, and publication with a particular emphasis on glass. This year marks the return to New York City for the Conference – the city that hosted the first of the annual Conference.
Tiffany Reading Room, built in 1890s (located in the Irvington Village Hall, Irvington, NY)
Tiffany Studios, Heavy Ribs (Spider) Reading Lamp, c. 1910, leaded glass, bronze, 19×15 in. Image: Lyndhurst.
Lisa Koenigsberg, President and Founder, Initiatives in Art and Culture and conference director, says “Initiatives in Art and Culture is thrilled to be marking its 20th year of exploring the movement as an organizing set of concepts and an ethos rather than as a specific style.” The activity-packed Conference will kick off Thursday, September 20th with lectures, panels, book signings, and gatherings. On Friday, September 21st, tours of the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be offered in addition to visits to two Gramercy Park South sites: the Players Club and the National Arts Club.
Saturday, September 21st sees a visit to Irvington and Tarrytown, specifically the award-winning restored Tiffany Reading Room in Village Hall and the Episcopal Church of St. Barnabas featuring stained glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany and John LaFarge. Next comes a visit to Sunnyside – home to author Washington Irvington and the “first example of Colonial Revival Architecture” – and the Alexander Jackson Davis–designed Gothic Revival mansion Lyndhurst. This visit to Lyndhurst includes an exhibition “Becoming Tiffany” and lastly, a visit to the Union Church of Pocantico Hills – built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and featuring a Henri Matisse-designed 1948 Rose Window.
On Sunday, formal sessions will take place at The Brooklyn Historical Society, housed in an Romanesque Revival building designed by George B. Post. The conference will tour Urban Glass – established in 1977 to foster experimentation and study glass as a creative medium – touring the studios and witnessing demonstrations of glass. A tour of Green-Wood Cemetery will close out the day.
Among participants at this early stage are:
- Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Curator of American Decorative Arts, The American Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Medill Higgins Harvey, Assistant Curator of American Decorative Arts, The American Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Constance C. McPhee, Curator, Prints & Drawings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Marsha Morton, Professor, Pratt Institute
- Jeff Richman, historian, Green-Wood Cemetery historian
- Lindsy Parrott, Director and Curator, The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass
- Julie Sloan, noted stained glass preservationist, consultant and authority
- Adrienne Spinozzi, Assistant Research Curator, The American Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor of Architectural History, University of Virginia Anne McCauley, David H. McAlpin Professor of the History of Photography and Modern Art, Princeton University
- Samuel White, FAIA, LEED AP, partner at PBDW Architects, and Stanford White’s great-grandson who is leading an effort to restore the former NYU library donated the institution by Helen Gould
- Beth Carver Wees, Ruth Bigelow Wriston Curator of American Decorative Arts, The American Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
To register and receive a special rate, please visit: iacartsandcrafts2018.eventbrite.com and use promo code AANDCCOLLECTOR to receive a special rate of $450 in lieu of $550 before August 3, 2018.
