The 55th annual meeting of the Wedgwood International Seminar will take place in Williamsburg, Virginia, to celebrate ceramic artistry in America. For over a year, Mr. Mickey Hightower (our WIS Seminar Director) has been planning an exciting program of speakers and events at the historic Williamsburg area. Mickey has planned what should be a most memorable event. WIS participants will be staying at the Williamsburg Woodlands Hotels and Suites.
You can now register online and make your payments online, also. From the top menu, navigate to 2010 Seminar/Online Registration and 2010 Seminar/2010 Payments respectively.
We are happy and honored to celebrate this very special Seminar by presenting lectures from the following guest speakers:
Janine Skerry - - Janine Skerry is the Curator of Metals at the Colonial Williamsburg foundation, and previously served more than 16 years as the Curator Of Ceramics and Glass. She has lectured and written widely on silver and ceramics in England and America. She has co-authored with Suzanne Hood the first comprehensive examination of the diverse range of German, English, and American stoneware owned in America prior to 1800. The accompanying exhibition,"Pottery with a Past; Stoneware in Early America” will be on view while the WIS is in Colonial Williamsburg.
Suzanne Findlen Hood - Suzanne Hood has worked with the ceramics and glass collections at Colonial Williamsburg since February 2002, first as assistant curator and beginning in 2008 as associate curator. In June of 2009, sheassumed sole responsibility for those collections. Much of her research has focused on 18th century archaeological ceramics, American Stoneware, and British pottery. Ms. Hood is co-author with Janine Skerry of the book “Salt-glazed Stoneware in Early America””, co-curator of the exhibition “Pottery with a Past; Stoneware in Early America”, and curator of “Inspiration and Ingenuity; American Stoneware”.
Robert Hunter - Rob has over 30 years of professional experience in prehistoric and historical archaeology. He was the founding director of the Center for Archaeological Research at the College of William and Mary. He served as assistant curator of Ceramics and Glass in the Department of Collections at Colonial Williamsburg. Since 2001 he has been editor of the annual journal, “Ceramics in America” published by the Chipstone Foundation of Milwaukee, WI. He is a partner in the business PERIOD DESIGNS, an innovation firm specializing in the reproduction of 17th & 18th century decorative arts. He is co-author of the seminal article “English Shell-Edge Earthenwares” (The Magazine ANTIQUES with George L. Miller, 1994) and “English Delft from Williamsburg’s Archaeological Contexts” in John C. Austin’s “British Delft at Williamsburg”. Mr. Hunter lectures widely and participates in the New York Ceramics Fair in January each year. He has written for a variety of ceramic publications including Ceramic Review, Studio Potter, Ceramics: Art and Perception, Pottery Making Illustrated, Kerameiki Techni, Early America Life, and The Magazine ANTIQUES.
Dr. Nancy Ramage - Nancy Ramage is a Charles A. Dana Professor of the Humanities and Arts Emeriti at Ithaca College in upstate New York, where she won the Excellence In Teaching Award. She has written several books on Greek and Roman art, as well as many articles on Wedgwood and neoclassicism in the 18th Century.
Dr. Anne Forschler-Tarrasch - Dr. Forschler-Tarrasch is the Marguerite Jones Harbert and John M. Harbert III Curator of Decorative Arts at the Birmingham Museum of Art since 1999 where she oversees the care, display, and interpretation of a 12,000-object collection.. She received her BA degree in Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles. She completed her PhD in Art History at the Technical University in Berlin, Germany, with a focus on European decorative arts of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and has a particular love of ceramic and decorative cast iron. WIS members know Anne through her tireless endeavors working with the Dwight and Lucille Beeson Wedgwood Collection, the finest outside of England. She has curated a number of exhibitions and reinstalled several galleries, and has contributed to a series of Museum publications. Additionally, Dr. Forschler-Tarrasch recently successfully negotiated the acquisition of the Buten Wedgwood Collection, one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind, and in July 2009 published an extensive catalogue of the Museum’s collection of European cast iron.
Julian Wedgwood - Julian Wedgwood is son of Sir John Hamilton Wedgwood (whom several of the WIS members met in the 1960’s) and brother of Sir Martin Wedgwood (a longtime WIS member and lecturer). Some of his recent “jaunts” around the world include a bicycle trip through Mexico, a canoe journey down the entire length of the Mississippi River, and this year he is interrupting hi hike along the Appalachian Trail (from Florida to Canada) to be with us at this seminar. He is also noted for his comprehensive collection of the works of Keith Murray. Julian’s personal collection is largely based on people that he knew from the factory, such as Keith Murray, Norman Wilson, and Arnold Machin.
Don Carpentier - Don Carpentier has extensive knowledge and insight into the mid twentieth century when the Wedgwood and Spode factories were contemporaries and competitors in the pottery industry. Don has lectured widely on the shut down of the Spode factory, and personally rescued tens of thousands of items such as moulds before the factory was torn down.
All of our meetings will be held in the Hennage Auditorium which is part of the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. Day-to-day activities/visits will include visits to the Shirely Plantation - the oldest family owned business inrth America (1723), the main mansion was completed in 1738 and includes eight colonial outbuildings and a formal garden, the Berkley Plantation and Gardens - a 1726 Georgian mansion, garden and grounds, the Chrysler Museum of Art houses over 40,000 objects spanning 5,000 years.
Remember: 28 April - 1 May, 2010.
