Faculty and students in the Material Culture Program enjoy many opportunities provided by a wide variety of area museums. Whether involved in curating exhibitions, or simply attending openings, material culture students find a diverse cultural world at their fingertips. Online Exhibitions The World at Hand is an on-line exhibition exploring the transcultural influences in materials and technology of eighteenth century British pottery. "Things in our World III: A Virtual Exhibition" was presented by the students of the Dimensions of Material Culture Class, Fall 2007. Click here to see last year's exhibit. "Things in our World II: A Virtual Exhibition" was created by the students of the Dimensions of Material Culture Class, Fall 2006. Click here to see the  exhibit. "Things in our World: A Virtual Exhibition" was presented by the students of the Dimensions of Material Culture Class, Fall 2005. Click here to see the exhibit. Past Exhibitions   The Finest in the Western Country: Wisconsin Decorative Arts 1820-1900 Decorative Arts Gallery, Milwaukee Art Museum September 11, 2008-January 4, 2009 These works were brought to light through the efforts of the Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database project, an ongoing collaboration of the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Chipstone Foundation to find and document early Wisconsin decorative arts for a publicly accessible online archive. The exhibition was guest curated by Emily Pfotenhauer, Hummel Fellow at the Chiptone Foundation (M.A. 2006, Department of Art History ). Paper Trail: Prints from the Chipstone Collection May 18 - September 10, 2006 Milwaukee Art Museum While the Chipstone Collection is best known for its American furniture and British ceramics, they also own a collection of significant eighteenth and nineteenth-century prints. This exhibition used the Chipstone's collection as the basis for exploring how the North American colonies and the new United States were presented and invented in print media. Curated by Meghan Doherty, Ph.D. candidate in Art History at UW-Madison. "The Chamber Pot: Culture Contained." November 15 - December 31, 2004 Kohler Art Library, Elvehjem Art Museum  This exhibit of chamber pots from 1450 to 1940 looked at the field of material culture as an approach to studying objects, analyzing the shifting cultural values embodied in the use of and production of chamber pots. Curated by Matthew Baumann, Meghan Doherty, Matthew Harris, Ellen Hickman, Andrea Hoffman, Anna Huntley, Margaret Lee, Philip Lyons, Cory Pillen, and Sooyun Sohn (graduate students in Art History 800, "Ceramics in America," taught by Professor Ann Smart Martin). "Slipware Traditions" March 12 – June 6, 2004 Milwaukee Art Museum Adjunct Professor Glenn Adamson (Department of Art History), and students from his special topics class "Slipware Traditions" cooperated to mount this exhibition that demonstrated the appeal of slip-decorated pots from many nations, including China, Korea, Germany and Italy. Special emphasis was placed on British and American ceramics from the 17th century to the present. "Reflections: Furniture, Silver, and Paintings in Early America" October 11-December 28, 2003 Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison Popular celebrities Leno and Leigh Keno of the Antiques Road Show, and Jon and Jules Prown of The Chipstone Foundation and Yale University joined head curator Professor Ann Smart Martin (Department of Art History) in touring the exhibition created, along with the help of students from the Introduction to Museum Studies (Department of Art History) class. This wonderful selection of early American paintings, furniture, and silver suggested how Americans experienced these objects in dimly lit homes between about 1630 and 1830, through the reflections of light from candles in mirrors or sunlight on silver. "Design, Vienna 1890s-1930s" April 26-June 29, 2003 Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison This Elvehjem-organized exhibition, curated by Ph.D candidate Joann Skrypzak (Department of Art History), traced the development of Viennese modernism, from turn-of-the-century Jugendstil to early 20th-century Expressionism, and interwar Art Deco. Drawn from a private collection, it featured fine and decorative arts produced by the Vienna Secession and Wiener Werkstätte. Ms. Skrypzak wrote the fully illustrated catalogue for the exhibition, with an essay by Professor Barbara Buenger (Department of Art History). "Contemporary Studio Case Furniture: The Inside Story" April 6-June 16, 2002 Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison Guest curated by Professors Virginia T. Boyd (Department of Environment, Textile & Design), and Thomas Loeser (Department of Art) and organized by the Elvehjem Museum of Art, Contemporary Studio Case Furniture: The Inside Story included 37 pieces of case furniture by 37 distinguished contemporary artists. This was the first exhibition of national scope that addressed this topic organized since the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston's landmark studio furniture exhibition of 1989-90, "New American Furniture: The Second Generation of Studio Furniture Makers."  The accompanying catalogue contains an introduction by furnituremaker and teacher Tom Loeser, who presents the artist's point of view; an essay by Professor Virginia Boyd on the perspective of a scholar of contemporary decorative arts; and an overview of the development of studio furniture over the past decade by decorative arts scholar Glenn Adamson (Department of Art History), provides a recent historical context for the pieces in the exhibition.  "Revealing Forms: African Art from the Elvehjem Collection" April 20-June 16, 2002 Elvehjem Museum of Art University of Wisconsin-Madison This exhibition, curated by Professor Henry Drewal (Department of Art History) and students from the Art History Department's Introduction to Museum Studies class, unveiled the premier objects in the Elvehjem's African collection to the public for the first time. Fifty African artworks included masks, beadwork, and sculptural carvings from many cultures and regions across the African continent and paintings, prints, and drawings from South Africa. The exhibition was divided conceptually into three large groups: objects by the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria, objects associated with gender issues, and contemporary South African art. "Makers & Users: American Decorative Arts, 1630-1820, from the Chipstone Collection August 21-October 24, 1999 Elvehjem Museum of Art University of Wisconsin-Madison This exhibition of furniture, ceramics and prints from early America, curated by Professor Ann Smart Martin (Department of Art History) and students from the Art History Department's Introduction to Museum Studies class, told stories of beauty and function, of makers and consumers.  It also revealed aspects of our national heritage, of a country becoming American. Click here to see an online version of the catalog.	Teaching Fieldtrips Workshops Exhibitions Conferences
© 2003 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System