2008 WILLIAM MORRIS SOCIETY EVENTS IN THE US

Society Events: 2008 Program

20 March
Deadline for submission of proposals for William Morris Society Sessions at the Modern Language Association Annual Convention, 27-30 December 2008, San Francisco, CA
We seek submissions for two topics:
"William Morris: Friends, Colleagues and Contemporaries" - Papers are sought on all aspects of the Morris circle--his colleagues and co-workers, his family, his artistic and political associates and friends and those who influenced or were influenced by his work. Although comparative approaches or those on little-known members of the Morris circle would be especially interesting, other topics are also welcome.
"Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic Prose" - Papers are invited on any aspect of prose by Pre-Raphaelite and aesthetic movement writers: art and literary criticism, memoirs, letters, and short prose fictions.
Please send one-page abstracts to florence-boos@uiowa.edu.

Tuesday, 22 April, 6 p. m.
J. W. Waterhouse: Theatre: Painting with an Eye on the Stage
Lecture by Peter Trippi
The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York, NY
Reception to follow
Sponsored by the William Morris Society in the United States, the American Friends of Arts and Crafts in Chipping Campden, the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, and the Victorian Society in America.
Tickets: $12 reduced rate for members of the Society and the other sponsoring organizations; $18 for others. Tickets may be purchased from the William Morris Society in the United States, either online or by sending a check.
Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.

Saturday, 17 May, 12 noon
Visit to the Delaware Art Museum
Delaware Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, DE
Join us at the Delaware Art Museum for an afternoon of art and fellowship. Our visit begins at noon with a special group tour of the reinstallation of the largest Pre-Raphaelite collection outside of England. On view are more than 100 paintings, works on paper, books, photographs, and decorative objects. Lunch follows at 1 p. m. in the museum's cafe. Then stay for a lecture (2 p. m.), "Flora Symbolica: Floral Symbolism in the Pre-Raphaelites" by Debra N. Mancoff, noted art historian and the author of Flora Symbolica.
Museum admission and the $15 lecture fee are waived for members of the William Morris Society (you are responsible for paying for lunch).
To reserve a place or for more information contact: Mark Samuels Lasner, (302) 831-3250, marksl@udel.edu.

27 - 30 December
William Morris Society Sessions at the Modern Language Association Annual Convention
San Francisco, CA
Two sessions of papers ("William Morris: Friends, Colleagues and Contemporaries" and "Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic Prose") and the annual meeting of the Society.

Exhibitions

Continuing
The Return of the Pre-Raphaelites
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
A reinstallation of the museum's permanent collection of paintings, drawings, graphics, and decorative arts by the Pre-Raphaelites and the associates. Related events are listed below, also see the Victorian Semester at the University of Delaware.
www.delart.org

15 February - 16 August
Masterworks of Victorian Art from the Collection of John H. Schaeffer
Brigham Young Museum of Art, Provo, UT
Masterworks of Victorian Art from the Collection of John H. Schaeffer, a new exhibition at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art gives visitors the rare opportunity to view some of the most beautiful and well-crafted works of this period from the private collection of Australian businessman and entrepreneur John H. Schaeffer. The exhibition will consist of paintings, sculpture and works on paper by the luminaries of Victorian art including, William Holman Hunt, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John William Waterhouse and George Frederic Watts. Many of these pieces have never been shown before in the United States.
>www.byu.edu

21 February - 26 April
Facing the Late Victorians: Portraits of Writers and Artists from the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection
Grolier Club, 47 East 60th St., New York, NY
William Morrris, his wife, Jane, his daughter, May, Edward Burne-Jones, D. G. Rossetti, A. C. Swinburne, Kate Greenaway, George Eliot, Oscar Wilde, and Aubrey Beardsley are among the figures depicted in drawings, prints, photographs, and books drawn from a leading private collection on loan to the University of Delaware Library.
www.grolicerclub.org

21 February - 15 June
Evolution / Revolution: The Arts and Crafts in Contemporary Fashion and Textiles
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Designers from the United States, Britain, Europe and Japan have led the way for a new arts and crafts spirit in fashion and clothing. This exhibition explores ways in which fashion and textiles are a reflection of changing attitudes about design and consumption. Similar in philosophy with the late nineteenth-century British Arts and Crafts movement, contemporary designers are seeking ways to unify technology with the creative process.
www.risd.edu

11 October - 31 December
At Home with Gustav Stickley: Arts and Crafts from the Stephen Gray Collection
Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
This exhibition of approximately 140 objects will feature exceptional works from the collection of Stephen Gray, as well as related works from the holdings of the Wadsworth Atheneum. The Arts and Crafts movement, rooted in late nineteenth-century Britain, espoused the principle of unity in the arts, believing that all creative endeavors were of equal value. There was a desire both to reform design but also to return quality to the process of making objects. The Arts and Crafts reformers wanted to re-establish a harmony between architect, designer, and craftsman, in order to produce well crafted, well designed, affordable, everyday objects. Gustav Stickley's Craftsman furnishings epitomized Arts and Crafts design in America.
www.wadsworthatheneum.org

Lectures, Performances, and Conferences

February - May
Victorian Semester
University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Series of lectures, talks, and films held in conjunction with The Return of the Pre-Raphaelites exhibition and events (listed below) at the Delaware Art Museum.
More information

Saturday, 23 February, 2-5 p. m.
The Many Facets of the Arts and Crafts Movement
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Leslie Greene Bowman (Winterthur Museum & Country Estate), chairs a panel focusing on the Arts and Crafts, "Then and Now." Speakers: collector Bruce Barnes; John Levitties (John Alexander Ltd.); Wendy Kaplan (Los Angeles County Museum of Art); and Deborah Cohen (Brown University). Free with paid museum admission.
www.delart.org

7-8 March
More than a Pretty Face: Women Artists in the P.R.B
Stunners: Pre-Raphaelite Muses and Models
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Lectures by Jan Marsh (independent scholar and leading expert on the Pre-Raphaelites) and Margaretta Frederick (Curator of the Pre-Raphaelite Collection, Delaware Art Museum). Museum members free/non-members $15, $20.
www.delart.org, Registration required, (302) 571-9590.

Monday, 10 March, 7.30 p. m.
Dante's Inferno
University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Ken Russell's 1967 biopic of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, preceded by a talk by Margaretta Frederick (Curator of the Pre-Raphaelite Collection, Delaware Art Museum). Part of the Victorian Semester series at the University of Delaware. Free and open to the public. Kirkbride Hall, room 006.
More information: Philip Flynn (Professor of English), pflynn@udel.eduu, or call 302 831-2212.

Friday, 11 April, 10 a. m. - 4 p. m.
Focus on Evo/Revo: Design + Craft Today
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Enjoy a day of expert discussion focused on the issue of design, craft and technology as seen in contemporary fashion and textiles. Free for members of the RISD community; $25 registration fee for the general public. Nancy Green will be speaking on William and May Morris, Elizabeth Miller on William Morris. To register e-mail Deborah Clemons or call 401-454-6530.

Sunday, 20 April, 2 p. m.
The Countess
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Anne Marie Cammarato (Delaware Theatre Company) directs a reading of Gregory Murphy's play about John Everett Millais and the Ruskins. Free.
www.delart.org, Registration required, (302) 571-9590.

Sunday, 27 April, 2 p. m.
A Poem Lived: Poetry of the Pre-Raphaelites
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Actors will read and Philip Flynn (Professor of English, University of Delaware) will lecture on Pre-Raphaelite poetry. Free.
www.delart.org, Registration required, (302) 571-9590.

Saturday, 17 May, 2 p. m.
Flora Symbolica: Floral Symbolism in the Pre-Raphaelites
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Lecture by Debra N. Mancoff (art historian and author of Flora Symbolica). Museum members $10/non-members $15/students $5.
www.delart.org. Registration required, (302) 351-8503.