Dr. Jennifer Harris's keynote presentation kicks of 4th IQSC symposium

03 Apr 2009    

The Global Quilt: Cultural Contexts attendees and members of the general public listen to Dr. Jennifer Harris, opening keynote speaker for this 4th IQSC symposium 

The fourth IQSC symposium, The Global Quilt: Cultural Contexts opened on Thursday evening April 2 in the reception hall of the new IQSC Museum building. Keynote speaker Dr. Jennifer Harris, Deputy Director/Curator of Textiles at the Whitworth Art Gallery which is part of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, spoke on "Innovation and Tradition in Contemporary Craft Practice". Dr. Harris has most recently curated the major exhibitions Take 4: New Perspectives on the British Art Quilt,, and Indigo: A Blue to Dye For.

Her provocative talk, accompanied by a selection of slides featuring primarily British artists, raised several important points relative to the critical discourse surrounding the so-called 'art' or 'studio' quilt. Dr. Harris positioned quilt and textile artists such as Pauline Burbidge within a Positivist framework and sees them as building on and extending traditional practice. By contrast, 'blue chip' artists such as Tracey Emin, working in the mainstream but appropriating such craft forms as the quilt, deliberately subvert conventional notions of domestic objects and turn them to more ironic purposes. Her talk was recorded and will soon be available on the IQSC's website.

The symposium continues through Saturday April 4 at the Holiday Inn in downtown Lincoln. A closing keynote address by Dr. Jacqueline Atkins, the Kate Fowler Merle-Smith Curator of Textiles at the Allentown Art Museum (Allentown, PA) takes place at 10:30 on Saturday.