Current and upcoming exhibitions, events
and professional opportunities

For DAS events, go to: https://www.decartssociety.org/upcoming-programs.

Exhibitions

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.

Interwoven Legacies: Women, Spirituality and the Art of Anila Agha
Virtual
October 1, 2025; 7 p.m.

Anila Quayyum Agha, who often uses light and shadow to transform space, turning galleries into sacred, contemplative environments, will talk about her art and experiences. She explores themes about the roles of women, spirituality and cultural hybridity.  

This Putman Arts Leader Lecture is presented concurrently with the exhibition Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven, which surveys two decades of the artist’s practice, including embroidery and other media.

Events

Special invitation for DAS contributors 

Join the American Ceramic Circle (ACC) in the Hudson Valley, Berkshires and Hilltowns of Western Massachusetts for a summer tour of exhibitions at museums, artists’ studios and private collections.

July 24–July 27, 2025

Thursday, July 24 | Hudson | Kingston, Catskill, Kinderhook

Attend a curator-led tour at the International Museum of Dinnerware Design and explore Emily Cole: Ceramics, Flora and Contemporary Responses, the new exhibition at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, followed by dinner at the Aviary in Kinderhook. 

Friday, July 25 | Berkshires | Williamstown

Lunch and tour at the Clark Art Institute. Kathleen Morris, Sylvia and Leonard Marx Director of Collections and Exhibitions, and curator of decorative arts, will guide participants through the European and American ceramics collection, followed by an afternoon studio visit with artist Sally Silberberg.

Registration for Thursday and Friday events is open to ACC members, their guests and DAS contributors.

Tour is limited to 25. Must be a DAS Contributor or ACC member.

Registration fee: $55 (ACC members: $45).

Saturday and Sunday events are free.

Attendees are responsible for admission tickets, lodging, meals and transportation. Registration is required for the Lunch and Conversation on Saturday, July 26.

The itinerary for Thursday–Friday is followed with recommendations to continue on Saturday–Sunday to see more ceramics while exploring the Hilltowns of Western Mass with other ACC members in the area and their hosted events, including a Lunch and Conversation between artist Adam Chau and curator Garth Johnson.

Accommodations: It is highly recommended to reserve early options for lodging in the Berkshires. The ACC has arranged a special limited opportunity for weekend visitors to stay at ATLAND, an artist residency in the Hilltowns.

Go to https://americanceramiccircle.org/acc-events/ for registration details and related information.

Contact DAS board member Margi Hofer (margi.hofer@gmail.com) or ACC board member Leslie Ferrin (leslie.ferrin@gmail.com) with any questions.

Please note that changes may occur in the program beyond the control of the Decorative Arts Society. The Decorative Arts Society, its officers and its directors, individually and/or otherwise, and cooperating organizations and individuals have no liability or responsibility whatsoever for this event, nor for any acts or omissions of others in connection therewith, and shall in no event be under any liability or responsibility whatsoever for the injury or death of any person or any loss, expense, delay, injury or other damage to any person or property occurring on, during or in relation to the event, or any change in the schedule or cancellation of the event. Reservation of a place for the event will constitute acceptance of these terms.

Fall Forum: Fashioning the Body: Dress in New England 1600–1900
Historic Deerfield
Deerfield, MA
https://www.historic-deerfield.org
September 12, 2025

Fashion has garnered interest in recent decades and research into the history of clothing has yielded new insights into culturally embedded ideas about self-styling and the body, yet few studies have explored New England’s relationship with styling the body and fashionable dress. Historic Deerfield’s 2025 Fall Forum, Fashioning the Body: Dress in New England 1600–1900, convenes a group of experts in the field to explore the history of dressing the body and self-presentation in this region. The event is organized in conjunction with the current exhibition Body by Design: Fashionable Silhouettes from the Ideal to the Real.

The forum begins on Friday with demonstrations of historic dressmaking and tours of the exhibition and library, followed by a welcome reception and the keynote address, “The Teen, Her BFF, Her Uncle and Some Tailors: Documents with Clues to New England Fashion” by Alden O’Brien, curator of costume and textiles at the DAR Museum (Washington, DC). O’Brien will provide insights into the diary of Sylvia Lewis Tyler and what it can tell us about shopping, making, [re]making, fashionability and thrift in New England clothing.

Saturday’s speakers include Jennifer Swope, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA); David E. Lazaro, Wadsworth Atheneum (Hartford, CT); Lynne Z. Basset, freelance curator of fashion and textiles; Chloe Chapin, assistant director of course development, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University; Kristina M. Hanson curator of collections and exhibitions, Fleming Museum of Art, University of Vermont,; Laura Johnson, curator of costumes and textiles, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC); Kristina Haugland, independent researcher; Emily Whitted, University of Massachusetts; and Livy Scott, PhD candidate, MIT. Saturday will include a buffet lunch with free time to walk the old Main Street and view open-hearth cooking demonstrations and historic houses.

For the full schedule and registration details, go to https://www.historic-deerfield.org/events/fall-forum-fashioning-the-body-dress-in-new-england-1600-1900/.

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.

2025 DAS award submissions now closed

Submissions have closed for the 2025 Robert C. Smith Award and Charles F. Montgomery Prize and Award of the Decorative Arts Society (DAS).

The Robert C. Smith Award recognizes the best journal article or essay from an exhibition catalogue or book published on the decorative arts in the previous year. For recognition this year, the article or essay must be in English and have been published for the first time in 2024. Both debut and seasoned authors are welcome to submit for the award. This award is in memory of Dr. Robert C. Smith, who taught the art and architecture of the United States, Spain, Portugal and South America at the University of Pennsylvania. The award follows in the tradition he established for clearly presented, original and innovative research.

The DAS presents the Charles F. Montgomery Award to the scholar(s) whose first major publication in the field of American decorative arts is judged to be the most outstanding work published in the previous year. The Charles F. Montgomery Prize is given to the most distinguished contribution to the study of American decorative arts published in the English language by a North American scholar(s) in the previous year. These awards are in memory of Charles F. Montgomery, who was a director of the Winterthur Museum, Library and Garden; curator of the Garvan and related collections at the Yale University Art Gallery; and a professor of the history of art at Yale University — an inspirational teacher, creative curator and eminent scholar.

Recipients will be announced in November 2025.

For further details about submitting works published in 2024 for the Montgomery Prize and Award, contact Remi Dyll, committee chair, at rdyll@mfah.org. For Smith Award submission information, contact Ann Glasscock, committee chair, at aglasscock@taftmuseum.org.

The DAS presented its awards and prize for 2023 publications in the decorative arts on November 12, 2024, in New York City. Details are in the fall 2024 DAS newsletter.

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.