Current and upcoming exhibitions, events
and professional opportunities
For DAS events, go to: https://www.decartssociety.org/upcoming-programs.
Events
These events close between issues of the DAS newsletter and are listed by closing dates.
To confirm whether exhibitions will be held as scheduled or for access to virtual versions, check the websites of museums and galleries before planning to visit in person.
Exhibitions
The Comfort of Home: Selections from the Permanent Collection
Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum
La Conner, WA
www.qfamuseum.org
Through January 18, 2026
Preserved quilts and tapestries from the 1800s through the early 1960s are on view from the museum’s permanent collection of historic textiles.
Becoming: The Transition from Girlhood to Womanhood
Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum
La Conner, WA
www.qfamuseum.org
Through February 22, 2026
Blair Treuer is a textile artist from rural Minnesota; a storyteller who paints with fabric and draws with thread. She entered into the craft when her children’s participation in an Ojibwe ceremony required her to make blankets for their spiritual offering. Becoming celebrates Treuer’s 13-year-old-daughter'’s journey and ceremonial rite of passage into womanhood through collaged portraits in jewel tones.
Sea Unseen: Carla Stehr
Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum
La Conner, WA
www.qfamuseum.org
Through March 22, 2026
Colorful anemones, nudibranchs crawling on eel grass, and microscopic patterns are part of fiber art by Carla Stehr, a retired marine biologist whose art is often inspired by features of marine life that may not be easily noticed or can only be seen with a microscope. Her representations range from Pacific Northwest intertidal life to natural surface patterns of diatoms, amphipods, fish and shark skin, based on images she photographed as a scientist using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) .
Opportunities
Let the DAS know of employment openings, grants and related opportunities in the decorative arts. Send such information to newsletter@DecArtsSociety.org for publication here or in our newsletter, as appropriate.
From Golden Age to Global Stage: Treasures of the Low Countries
Study Trip Abroad
Decorative Arts Trust
March 8–16 and 21–29, 2026
Optional extension to Maastricht and Tefaf
March 16–21, 2026
https://decorativeartstrust.org
Registration is open for the Decorative Arts Trust’s 2026 tour of the Netherlands and Flanders, with opportunities to take in decorative arts and architectural achievements from the Medieval to the Art Nouveau in Amsterdam, the Hague, Bruges and Brussels. An extension to Maastricht is timed to take advantage of the European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), where exclusive dealer-led tours present fine art, antiques and design. Highlights include privileged access to private collections and curator-led experiences in museums and historic houses.
Details and online registration: https://decorativeartstrust.org/low-countries-2026/ or call 610-627-4970.
The Summer Schools of the Victorian Society in America (VSA), the only national nonprofit organization dedicated to the historic preservation, protection, understanding, education and enjoyment of 19th-century heritage, have been offered based in Newport, RI, and London, England, for almost 50 years. Programming addresses 19th- and early-20th-century architecture, design and the arts.
The VSA recently launched a third summer program based in Chicago, which focuses on the American roots of Modernism. The summer programs are open to graduate students, academics, architects and enthusiasts. Full and partial scholarships are available for all three programs.
For more information about the summer programs and online applications, go to at https://victoriansociety.org/summer-schools/. Application materials for the summer of 2026 will be due in the spring.
Past special invitations for DAS contributors
• In May 2023, DAS contributors were invited to an online presentation about Multiple Affinities: Art Botany in British Design Reform: 1835–1870 by Sarah Alford, assistant professor in craft history and theory at the Alberta University of the Arts (Canada). The program was presented by the Canadian Society of Decorative Arts/Cercle canadien des arts décoratifs (CSDA).
The program was part of the CSDA Sundays: The Expert Series — Multiple Affinities: Art Botany.
• In January 2023, DAS contributors received a special invitation to join The Antique in Print: The Classical Past and the Visual Arts in the Long 18th Century, a free online lecture hosted by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (New York, NY). Dr. Adriano Aymonino explored how the print culture of the “long 18th century” shaped the visual and allegorical language of Neoclassicism and placed Michel Angelo Pergolesi’s drawings and prints (Designs for Various Ornaments, 1777–1801) in context. Dr. Julia Siemon, curator of the Cooper Hewitt’s Mr. Pergolesi’s Curious Things: Ornament in 18th Century Britain, provided a brief overview of the exhibition.
• Contributors to the DAS were invited to explore the history and legacy of the Gorham Manufacturing Company by viewing the premiere of Chasing Silver: The Story of Gorham, a three-part documentary series from Rhode Island PBS Original (WSBE). The series aired in May 2021.
For more about the series, go to:
https://www.ripbs.org/blogs/bird-wire/chasing-silver-the-story-of-gorham/
Use this link for a livestream after each broadcast:
watch.ripbs.org/livestream or http://bit.ly/ChasingSilverVOD
• The DAS appreciates recent invitations from the UK Decorative Arts Society for our contributors to benefit from several online presentations:
√ Sarah Nichols presented “Glass: Venice, Venini and America.” She organized an exhibition about the relationship between Murano and America when she was chief curator and curator of decorative arts at the Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, PA).
√ Matthew Winterbottom, curator of decorative arts and sculpture at the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, UK), presented “The Colour Revolution: Art, Design, and Fashion in Victorian Britain.”
• Caitlin Condell, associate curator and head of the Department of Drawings, Prints and Graphic Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (New York, NY), and DAS former Program chair Emily M. Orr, assistant curator of modern and contemporary American design at Cooper Hewitt, presented “Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer.”
Known as the “poster king,” Kauffer was a pioneer of commercial art who integrated avant-garde style into modern life. While living in England between the two World Wars, Kauffer produced radical posters; a wide range of book covers, rugs, theatrical productions; and more. He continued his work in New York from 1940 until his death in 1954. The lecture provided a behind-the-scenes look at a newly released monograph and forthcoming exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum surveying Kauffer’s work.
