DAS News

Special invitation for DAS contributors

Contributors to the Decorative Arts Society, Inc. 
are invited to attend a curator-led tour of
An Ecology of Quilts: The Natural History of American Textiles on Thursday, October 16

Join the DAS at the American Folk Art Museum for a tour of An Ecology of Quilts: The Natural History of American Textiles with exhibition co-curators Emelie Gevalt, deputy director and chief curatorial and program officer, and Austin Losada, Art Bridges Fellow.

Presenting quilts from the 18th to the 20th centuries from an ecological perspective, this groundbreaking exhibition traces patterns of relationships between the environment and traditional quilting practices. An Ecology of Quilts explores the environmental and social impact of cultivating and harvesting raw materials, networks of overland and ocean trade used to transport materials, and technologies and industrial techniques that allowed quilt-making to flourish as a quintessential art form.

Date: Thursday, October 16  
Time: 5 p.m.
Location:  American Folk Art Museum, 2 Lincoln Square (Columbus Ave. between 65th and 66th Streets), New York City
Cost: Free for DAS contributors; space is limited and advance registration is required.
 
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Contact DAS Board Member Margi Hofer with any questions:
margi.hofer@gmail.com

If you are interested in becoming a DAS contributor, visit our website — http://www.decartssociety.org/support/ —
or contact info@decartssociety.org for more information. 

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.

Decorative Arts Society award submissions are closed for 2025

Submissions for the 2025 Robert C. Smith Award and Charles F. Montgomery Prize and Award of the Decorative Arts Society (DAS) have closed as of June 1, 2025.

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 2025 Montgomery Prize and Award, contact Remi Dyll, committee chair, at rdyll@mfah.org.

For 2025 Smith Award submission information, contact Ann Glasscock, committee chair, at aglasscock@taftmuseum.org.

Decorative Arts Society, Inc. presents awards and prize for 2023 outstanding contributions to scholarship

The Decorative Arts Society, Inc. (DAS) recognized scholarly works produced in 2023 by presenting its Charles F. Montgomery Prize and Award and Robert C. Smith Award on November 12, 2024, at the Explorer’s Club in New York, NY. Recipients were chosen after careful review of numerous worthy and laudable publications submitted for consideration.

The Charles F. Montgomery Prize is presented to the most distinguished contribution to the study of American decorative arts published in the English language by a North American scholar in a given year. The 2023 recipient, A Dark, a Light, a Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes (New York, NY: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2023), was produced in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name. It is edited by Susan Brown, associate curator and acting head of textiles at Cooper Hewitt, and Alexa Griffith Winton, Cooper Hewitt’s manager of content and curriculum, with contributions by John Stuart Gordon, Emily M. Orr, Monica Penick, Erica Warren and Leigh Wishner. This groundbreaking publication sheds new light on the story and consequential legacy of textile innovator Dorothy Liebes and her influential studio.

The Charles F. Montgomery Award honors the scholar whose first major publication in the field of North American decorative arts is judged the most outstanding such work published in a given year. The 2023 winner is Embroidering the Landscape: Art, Women and the Environment in British North America, 1740–1770 (London: Lund-Humphries, 2023) by Dr. Andrea Pappas, professor of art and art history at Santa Clara University. Pappas re-examines some of the most iconic needlework from colonial North America: the embroidered landscapes produced in New England in the mid-18th century. She contextualizes the needlework within the broader landscape tradition, revealing how these works communicate women’s knowledge of and engagement with their environment as it was transformed through colonization.

The Robert C. Smith Award recognizes the best article or essay in the field of decorative arts published in English in a given year. The 2023 winning essay is “‘Threads & Clues of it’: Thomas Jefferson’s New York Furniture,” by Diane Ehrenpreis, curator of decorative arts and historic interiors at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, published in American Furniture (Chipstone Foundation, 2023). Beginning with a humble packing list, the article paints a fascinating picture of Jefferson’s New York furnishings. This thoughtfully researched, revelatory essay reminds readers of the performative role furniture can play.

The Smith Award Committee also gave an honorable mention to Edward Cooke, Charles F. Montgomery Professor of American Decorative Arts at Yale University, for his article “Eco-Aesthetics as an Organizing Principle in Global Material Culture: The Example of Green Woodworking,” published in Winterthur Portfolio (Summer/Autumn 2023). This essay encourages readers to question why objects made from wood look the way they do, taking into consideration environmental ethics and the interconnections between humans and nature.

Photos from the awards event and further details about the winning publications and their authors are in the fall 2024 issue of the DAS newsletter. The newsletter is a benefit of being a DAS contributor.

For more information about the awards, see www.decartssociety.org/awards. Suggestions, recommendations or submissions of books and articles published in 2024 to be considered for the 2025 DAS awards can be sent to DAS Publication Awards Chair Medill Harvey at medill.harvey@metmuseum.org or DAS President Amy Dehan at amy.dehan@cincyart.org.

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The Decorative Arts Society, Inc. (DAS) is pleased to offer occasional special events for our contributors.
Watch your mail and this space for announcements of new tours and other events.

If you have any questions, contact DAS Board Member Margi Hofer at
margi.hofer@gmail.com

If you are interested in becoming a DAS contributor, visit the Support section of our website: http://www.decartssociety.org/support/ or contact info@decartssociety.org for more information. 

Decorative Arts Society, Inc.
http://www.decartssociety.org/