2025 Research Grant Recipients
In 2025, the Decorative Arts Trust celebrates another record-breaking year for our Research Grants program, with 16 recipients receiving travel funding to study objects and archival records.
The Trust congratulates the 2025 Research Grant recipients:
- Carson L. Beauman, MA Student, Georgia Southern University, the curriculum of Boston Boston schools run by women, 17th-18th centuries
- Anna Flinchbaugh, PhD student, University of Southern California, embroidery’s intersection of craft and industry in the Britain and the United States, late 19th-early 20th centuries
- Kathryn Griffith, PhD student, University of Southern California, Italian goldwork in textiles and the decorative arts, 15th-16th centuries
- Julia LaPlaca, PhD student, University of Michigan, tapestries in European altar environments, 14th-16th centuries
- Jasper Martens, PhD student, University of California Santa Barbara, Netherlandish portrait miniatures with translucent mica overlays, mid-17th century (The Decorative Arts Society of Orange County Grant)
- Fiona Owens, MA student, Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, University of Delaware, the framing of Pre-Raphaelite artist Mary Macomber’s paintings, late 19th century (The Marie Zimmermann Grant)
- Emma Piercy-Wright, PhD student, University of Exeter, mother-of-pearl in French decorative arts, late 17th-early 19th centuries
- Sarah Rapoport, PhD student, Yale University, French transfer-printed ceramics, late 19th century
- Servane Rodie-Dumon, PhD student, Universite d’Artois, the career of French architect-decorator Émile Peyre, late-19th century
- Joseph Semkiu, PhD student, University of Southern California, materiality of radio chassis, mid-20th century
- Arielle Suskin, PhD student, Case Western Reserve University, Roman figural balsamaria, 3rd century BCE-3rd century CE
- Nur’Ain Taha, PhD student, Utrecht University, ivory pipe cases that connect the early Dutch Republic and Ceylon, 17th century
- Ashley Vernon, MA student, Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, University of Delaware, “paper home” collages crafted by women, late 19th century
- John White, PhD student, Princeton University, walrus and narwhal ivory in Germanic decorative arts, 15th-17th centuries
- Natalie Wright, PhD student, University of Wisconsin-Madison, The Functional Fashions line of the Clothing Research and Development Foundation, late 20th century
- Rebecca Yuste, PhD student, Columbia University, the importation of Neoclassical style to New Spain, late 18th century
Emma Piercy-Wright is studying mother-of-pearl. Pictured: Snuff box, c. 1790, France. Watercolor on mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell, fruitwood. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, bequest of Miss Mary Sophia Walker, 1904.78. Photo by Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
Nur’Ain Taha is studying ivory pipe cases. Pictured: Pipe case from Ceylon, 1799–1825, Sri Lanka. Ivory, tropical wood, copper. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, NG-453. Photo by Rijksmuseum.
Joseph Semkiu is studying radio chassis designs in the 1940s. Pictured: Manufactured by Emerson Radio & Phonograph Corporation and designed by Norman Bel Geddes, Radio Model 400-3 “Patriot,” c. 1940, New York City. Cast Catalin case. Private collection, on display for On the Radio exhibition at the SFO Museum, L2018.0307.002.
Natalie Wright is studying the Clothing Research and Development Foundation’s functional fashions of the late 20th century. Pictured: Shannon Rodgers, Photo of Virginia Connors (1923–96) wearing a coat dress (made for Jerry Silverman’s 1967 Fall/Winter collection), c. 1967, United States. Plaid. Photo by Marian Stephenson for the Clothing Research and Development Foundation. Image courtesy of Natalie Wright and Mary Joan Connors.
The application deadline for Research Grants is April 30 annually. For more information on grants and scholarships from the Decorative Arts Trust, read about our Emerging Scholars Program, generously supported by Trust members and donors. For deadline reminders, sign up for our e-newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. The deadline for institutions to apply for the 2025 Prize for Excellence and Innovation is approaching on June 30.
About The Decorative Arts Trust Bulletin
Formerly known as the "blog,” the Bulletin features new research and scholarship, travelogues, book reviews, and museum and gallery exhibitions. The Bulletin complements The Magazine of the Decorative Arts Trust, our biannual members publication.
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