Costume Collection Symposium
November 2, 2015
A symposium on the role of costume collections in the 21st century will take place on November 13th and 14th, in conjunction with our current exhibition, Immortal Beauty. The symposium will feature keynote speaker Sarah Scaturro, Head Conservator at the Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art; and a panel of expert scholars representing universities from around the country will discuss the role of fashion in academic study, including whether fashion should be considered art or material culture; how technology can assist in preservation and accessibility for items of dress; and whether the physical object is still relevant in the age of social media. Click here to register for the symposium, which is free to Drexel students and faculty.
Keynote Speaker Sarah Scaturro, who is responsible for the preservation and conservation of the Metropolitan Museum’s collection of costumes and accessories, will speak on Friday, November 13 at 6:00pm, followed by a reception and exhibition viewing. On November 14, morning papers will be presented by Dr. Amanda Sikarskie, a professor in the Department of History at Western Michigan University (11:00am); and Jennifer Nieling, MA, who has worked in the special collections at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and at the Nantucket Historical Association (11:30am).
The symposium continues through the afternoon of November 14 with a presentation by Jill Carey, M.Ed and Lynn Blake, MFA, Fashion Department faculty from Lasell College (1:30pm). Daniel Caulfield-Sriklad, a Fulbright Scholar in residence at Westphal currently researching digital technology in the field of museum curation, will present a paper at 2:00pm.
The event will conclude with a round table discussion at 2:30pm, followed by a closing reception.
For more information about the symposium or Immortal Beauty, the first large-scale retrospective of Drexel’s Robert & Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection, please contact fhcc@drexel.edu or 215-895-3504.
For those outside of the Drexel community, tickets are $35 for the full symposium and $15 for non-Drexel students.