The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) at Old Salem Museums & Gardens is hosting its annual furniture seminar on March 30″1. The seminar is titled “On the Vanguard: 60 Years of Southern Furniture Sleuthing & Beyond.”
Since 1993, the MESDA furniture seminar has gained a reputation for providing a forum at which collectors, curators, woodworkers and conservators come together to explore the subject of antique furniture through a variety of topics. Past seminar themes have included wood, turned furniture, painted surfaces, carved furniture, case furniture, upholstered furniture, tools and the trade, surface finishes and regional southern chairs.
Sixty years after the first landmark exhibition of Southern furniture and 15 years after the publication of Colonial Williamsburg’s Southern Furniture , the 2012 MESDA furniture seminar will explore fresh insights, recent discoveries and expanded boundaries.
An optional preseminar hands-on workshop on historic varnishes will be offered on Friday from 9 am to 1 pm at the workshop of Martin O’Brien, cabinetmaker, located a few blocks from MESDA. Registration for this workshop includes lunch and all materials. Space is limited.
The seminar sessions will begin at MESDA at 2 pm on Friday, and conclude with an open house in the MESDA Collection at 3:30 Saturday.
Presenters for the seminar are Mack Headley, master of the Anthony Hay Shop, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; Ronald L. Hurst, vice president and chief curator, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; Wendy A. Cooper, Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil senior curator of furniture, Winterthur Museum; Lisa Minadri, assistant curator of furniture for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Furniture Project, Winterthur Museum; Robert A. Leath, chief curator, MESDA; Martin O’Brien, cabinetmaker; and June Lucas, director of research, Old Salem Museums & Gardens.
The costs for the seminar are $125 for the optional pre-seminar historic varnish workshop (fee subject to change; includes materials and lunch), and $295 for the seminar ($245 for Friends of MESDA or Old Salem). This includes all sessions and materials, Friday dinner, lunch and admission to Old Salem Museums & Gardens and MESDA.
MESDA is at the Frank L. Horton Museum Center, 924 South Main Street.
For seminar information, 336-721-7360 or email mesdaprograms@oldsalem.org .
