Southern Accents: Slabs, Safes, Seats, and Color
by
235 235 people viewed this event.
The MESDA Furniture Seminar is a biennial forum for collectors, curators, woodworkers, and conservators to explore a variety of topics related to the serious study of antique furniture. The program is known for its intimate size that allows speakers and attendees the change to interact with each other and the MESDA and Old Salem collections. From Virginia pie safes to Alabama slabs, the 2024 program will explore the various ways southern regional identity manifests in furniture styles and making.
Special themed pre-conference experiences will include a behind-the-scenes tour of MESDA’s paint decorated furniture collection with Lea Lane, Curator of the MESDA Collection. Sally Gant, Former Educational Director at MESDA, will also deliver a pre-conference workshop on “the Guilford Limner,” a still-anonymous 19th century painter whose portraits of Kentuckians and Carolinians also include detailed depictions of regional furniture and interiors.
Featured speakers include Keynote Speaker Roy Underhill of PBS’s the Woodwright Shop, and demonstrations of Shenandoah Valley paint decoration techniques by Dr. Angela Caban of the American College of the Building Arts and Chet Tomlinson of Old Salem who will demonstrate the processes behind a distinctive Kentucky chair group.
In addition to two days of lectures and demonstrations, attendees will also have the opportunity to examine MESDA’s furniture collection up close during an open house in the MESDA study rooms.
Additional Details
Institution or Organization name - The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts
