Five Recipients Receive 2025 Publishing Grants
by Emily Serpico
The Decorative Arts Trust is thrilled to announce the five recipients of our 2025 Publishing Grants. The Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, AL; the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT; The Preservation Society of Newport County in Newport, RI; and Victoria Mansion in Portland, ME, received Publishing Grants under the Collections and Exhibitions category. Dr. Mariah Kupfner received a Publishing Grant for First-Time Authors.
In August 2026, the publication of Roll Call: 200 Years of Black American Art will be an integral part of the 75th anniversary celebration of the Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA). Planned alongside a companion exhibition, the publication will also serve as a comprehensive survey of the Museum’s collection of works by African American and Black American artists who live(d) and work(ed) in America, including its superb holdings of Southern quilts and ceramics (figure 1). The publication will also examine the complexity of the interwoven histories of the BMA, the City of Birmingham, and Black communities. Roll Call will include scholarly entries on each of the over 250 Black American artists in the Museum’s collection to fully consider the importance of these works locally, regionally, and globally.
Figure 1. Larry Allen (born 1953), Double Wall Amphora, 2022, Leeds, AL. Black stoneware, incised and glazed. Birmingham Museum of Art, 2022.1. Photo by Birmingham Museum of Art.
In 2022, the Florence Griswold Museum presented the exhibition New London County Quilts & Bed Covers, 1750–1825, which showcased exquisite, rarely-seen quilted petticoats, appliqued bed covers, bed rugs, and stuffed whitework quilts hand-crafted by women and girls of this region of Connecticut (figure 2). The accompanying publication, set to be completed by April 2027, shares the scholarship generated for the exhibition, addressing an understudied and continuously evolving area of material culture that will open emerging areas of study for rising scholars. The publication explores women’s education, family networks, women’s interest in current events (such as the War of 1812), the maritime economy, and the region’s connection to the slave trade.
Figure 2. Elizabeth Foote, Bed rug, c. 1778, Colchester, CT. Hand-embroidered wool on plain woven wool ground. Courtesy of the Connecticut Historical Society, Gift of Mrs. J.H.K. Davis.
Treasures of the Newport Mansions, the first ever collections catalogue for The Preservation Society of Newport County (PSNC), will span centuries and highlight the organization’s distinctive material content (figure 3). Among the most significant in the United States, PSNC’s holdings uniquely encompass extraordinary objects within their original historical contexts. Presenting approximately 100 objects, the catalogue, which will be published by February 2027, will highlight advanced research made by experts and early-career scholars across multiple disciplines, including curators, conservators, and public historians, who will provide perspective as to how these objects hold individual merit in both their art historical and cultural contexts. The object entries will also share stories of conservation work and feature new photography.
Figure 3. John C. Moore (1803–74) for Tiffany, Young & Ellis (active 1837–53), 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘌𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 (centerpiece), 1851. Sterling silver, silvered brass. The Preservation Society of Newport County, gift of Norrie Wetmore Sellar, PSNC.9804.
Victoria Mansion’s “Bold, Designing Fellows”: Italian Decorative Painters and Scenic Artists in the United States, 1820–1880 is inspired by many years of research on the Bolognese artist Giuseppe Guidicini. Previously unknown, Guidicini was responsible for the 1860 design and decoration of the wall and ceiling paintings that fill Victoria Mansion (figure 4). The publication is to be completed by May 2026 and will chronicle Guidicini’s history from his training in Bologna to his accomplishments in New York, Cincinnati, and Richmond. This research led to the discovery of a small but highly influential network of Italian immigrant decorative painters and scenic artists who made exceptional contributions to the artistic, architectural, and theatrical heritage of the United States.
Figure 4. Giuseppe Guidicini, Ceiling (detail), 1860, Portland, ME. Plaster, distemper paint. Victoria Mansion Inc. Photo by Gianfranco Pocobene.
Publishing Grant recipient Dr. Mariah Kupfner is an Assistant Professor of American Studies and Public Heritage at Penn State Harrisburg and earned her PhD from Boston University. She will publish Crafting Womanhood: Needlework, Gender, and Politics in the United States, 1810–1920 with the University of Delaware Press in August 2026. This publication looks closely at gendered textiles, reading them as essential sources of historical meaning and self-making. Decorative needlework (figure 5) offers a powerful lens on American women’s political and social movements in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Examining this genre of material culture, Crafting Womanhood explores the argument that stitched objects are not only helpful apertures into women’s domestic life, but that their manufacture was key to changing constructions of gender in this era.
Figure 5. Ann Plato, Needlework picture, undated, Connecticut. Silk, paint, bast fiber. Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Museum purchase with funds provided by the Henry Francis du Pont Collectors Circle, 2018.0029.
We look forward to seeing these publications come to fruition. March 31, 2026, is the deadline for the next round of Publishing Grant applications.
Emily Serpico is the Membership and Grants Coordinator at the Decorative Arts Trust.
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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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