United States Conferences and Symposia

Hawaii

Textile Society of American 11th Biennial Symposium
Textiles as Cultural Expressions
September 24-27

Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, Honolulu
Join the Textile Society of America at its 2008 Symposium in Honolulu. Hawaii is the most geographically isolated island chain in the world and a crossroad of cultures between the East and West. As the melting pot of the Pacific, Hawaii’s diverse cultures will be highlighted at the many tours offered before and after the symposium. For more information about the 2008 Symposium, including schedule, registration information and exhibition calendar, please see symposia_2008.htm.

Massachusetts

New Bedford Whaling Museum
Needlework and the Sea Symposium
Offered in Conjunction with the exhibition Needle/Work—Art, Craft, and Industry in a Port City
June 12-15, 2008

Needlework as an art, craft, and industry has played a significant role in the history of New Bedford and its environs. The plying of needle and thread – whether domestic or commercial, for ornamental or utilitarian purposes – symbolizes the impact of whaling both as a source of wealth and a means of subsistence. The lives and work of merchants’ and captains’ wives and daughters; seamstresses, dressmakers, and tailors; embroiderers and knitters; sail- and flag-makers; and the whalemen who carved exquisite scrimshaw needlework tools for the women in their lives, demonstrate the complexities and contradictions inherent in the domestic ideal and working realities of needlework. For more information, please see http://www.whalingmuseum.org

New York

The Handweaving Museum & Arts Center
Weaving History Conference
May 17-18, 2008

Presentations, Marketplace, and Show & Tell. Presentations include a talk from Nell Znamierowski An Unpublished Interview With Anni Albers. Special exhibit Bertha Gray Hayes Miniatures in the gallery. Pre-conference workshops May 16 on Weave Analysis, and Textured Yarns in Weaves. For more information contact: The Handweaving Museum & Arts Center, 314 John Street, Clayton, NY 13624 (315) 686-4123, http://www.hm-ac.org.

International Conferences and Symposia

Italy

Florence, Italy
Costume Colloquium: A Tribute to Janet Arnold
November 6-9, 2008

Costume Colloquium is an international interdisciplinary symposium on historical dress, costume for performance and contemporary fashion. All facets of dress and fashion history, design and interpretation will be explored, and the colloquium will provide a stimulating platform where participants can exchange ideas and information. The range of perspectives include art history, social history and textile conservation; designing costume for the performing arts and living history; as well as the use of historical dress as inspiration for contemporary fashion. Costume Colloquium will include papers, demonstrations, tours and excursions, providing participants with unprecedented access to Italian venues crucial to the study of dress history. The topics to be examined vary from the analysis of clothing in burial finds and the interpretation of dress in documents and visual images, to the re-creation of historical dress and contemporary fashion design, incorporating both theoretical and practical perspectives on these subjects. For more information, please see http://www.costume-textiles.com/