ATHENS, GA.- The Georgia Museum of Art will host the fifth Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, “Neighboring Voices: The Decorative Culture of Our Southern Cousins,” January 29-30, 2010, at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel.
The symposium will bring together representatives from neighboring states to discuss their own research, collections and decorative-arts history. Topics to be discussed at the symposium include the discovery of Georgia’s early decorative arts, the paint-decorated furniture of Piedmont North Carolina, the influence of Georgia potters on Alabama pottery, the profile of a southern antebellum silversmith, German toys in American childhood, French porcelain in the antebellum South and early Georgians’ migration to Alabama. Featured speakers at this year’s symposium are Mary Audrey Apple, Joey J. Brackner, Daniel Brooks, Charlotte Crabtree, Robert Doares, Robert A. Leath, and June Lucas.
The symposium will kick off with a tour of five historic houses in Athens followed by a cocktail reception and speech by Robert A. Leath on the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts and the discovery of Georgia’s early decorative arts. This speech is sponsored in part by the Georgia Humanities Council and will be free and open to the public.
The biennial symposia series is named in honor of the late Henry D. Green, an early and distinguished proponent of the study of Georgia’s decorative arts. He is known as a pioneer in the movement to recognize the state’s rich legacy in the decorative arts.
Seating is limited and advance registration by mail or online is required. The registration deadline is January 15, 2010, and spaces will be filled in the order in which registrations are received. The registration form can be accessed at
www.uga.edu/gamuseum/calendar/green_symposium.html.
The activity fee is $125 and includes the Friday afternoon bus tour of five historic houses and refreshments, a Friday evening cocktail buffet prior to the keynote lecture Friday evening, Saturday symposium admission and Saturday buffet lunch. The symposium fee sans activities is $35, or $15 for students, and includes Saturday symposium admission.
