EXHIBITS

BY ALEXANDRA ALEVIZATOS KIRTLEY

In April, the noteworthy private collection of Philadelphians John and Leigh Middleton was unveiled as loans to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art to herald the opening of each museum’s reinstallations as well as America’s 250th.

BY DAVID L. BARQUIST AND COLIN FANNING

To celebrate the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s 150th anniversary, the exhibition Workshop of the World: Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia brings together more than 250 works of furniture, ceramics, stained glass, metalwork, textiles, paintings, sculpture, and works on paper by Philadelphia-area artists, architects, and manufacturers.

BY LISA MINARDI, EMILY SNEFF, CHRISTOPHER MALONE, AND SARAH BOWEN

German immigrants were among the largest and most influential communities in 18th-century Pennsylvania, yet their role in the American Revolution is often overlooked.

BY PETER SEIBERT

Seeking Profit and Power: Philadelphia, China Trade, and the Making of America at the Independence Seaport Museum explores the complexities of how the fledgling United States established both international trade and diplomatic relations through trade with Asia.

BY JOSH LANE

The exhibition Challenging Masterpieces: Art and Identity in American Furniture and the accompanying catalogue will feature 80 examples of furniture drawn from Winterthur’s renowned collection to mark the 75th anniversary of the museum’s founding.

BY JENNIFER ZWILLING

Radical Americana was born out of a desire to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and to capitalize on the Semiquincentennial in a way that paralleled the major celebrations that accompanied the Centennial, the Sesquicentennial, and the Bicentennial in Philadelphia.

BY REED GOCHBERG

What did it feel like to live through a revolution? The Concord Museum’s new special exhibition, Whose Revolution, explores a pivotal moment in American history, when simmering tensions between the American colonies and Great Britain led to the outbreak of war.

BY KATHERINE ANNE PAUL

Silver entered global markets at an accelerated rate in the 19th century, and the artistry of Southern Asian silversmiths played a major yet under-sung role in converting a once-rare material into items we now take for granted. The Harish K. Patel Collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama provides a thorough record of this trend.

BY WILLIAM A. STROLLO

A collaborative exhibition between the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Museum, Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence centers on the lives, experiences, trials, and triumphs of Black craftspeople, illuminating their journey towards autonomy and presenting inclusive vignettes into the American fight for freedom.

BY ELYSE D. GERSTENECKER

The story of Newcomb College Pottery has been told often. Seeking out a way for alumnae to put their education into practice, the leaders of the art department of H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College in New Orleans established a pottery. Director Ellsworth Woodward (1861–1939) hired Mary Given Sheerer (1865–1954) to teach china painting courses in 1894, and Sheerer began working toward establishing the Pottery the following year.