BodyText1
Under the auspices of the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Department of Art History and the Winterthur Program for American Material Culture Studies will co-host an exciting four-day event October 10-14 marking the launch of a multi-year project focusing on global impact of Asian aesthetics on American material culture. Following the projects they and UD alums have curated in the past 10 years (Collecting China, Asia in Amsterdam, Made in the Americas), project directors, Professors Vimalin Rujivacharakul and J. Ritchie Garrison (Department of Art History and Winterthur Program in American Material Culture Studies) came to notice that in many occasions, emerging artistic forms in the American field have had less to do with the mobility of actual objects from Asia than with translations of Asian aesthetic influences. Such a condition deserves critical attention from researchers, who must seek to comprehend it beyond the limits of materiality, in order to identify the emergence and translation of aesthetics, patterns, or design ideas.
In support of this collaborative project, the two departments, together with the Office of Professional and Graduate Education, will host a four-day research event titled "In Search of the Global Impact of Asian Aesthetics on American Art and Material Culture." The event will include an international graduate student workshop, a research symposium of senior scholars and museum curators, and a launch of a living repository site. In addition to the Terra Foundation, the project is also supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through grants received by the University of Delaware's Office of Professional and Graduate Education, Libraries, the Center for Material Culture Studies, and Winterthur Museum, Library and Garden. Winterthur, together with the following museums and institutions, will provide additional in-kind support and representatives to participate in the project: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Freer|Sackler Galleries, Washington DC; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; the Museum of Fine Art, Boston; the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem; the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; the National Gallery of Canada; the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz; the School of Oriental and African Studies, London; Tsinghua University, Beijing; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Palace Museum, Beijing.
All corresponding events are free and open to the public, however advanced regist​​ration is required. A full schedule of events and list of speakers is available on the symposium website.
