2009 Charleston Art & Antiques Forum
is celebrating its twelfth year of presenting the best in fine and decorative arts scholarship during Charleston, South Carolina’s 2009 Antiques Week. Join us March 18 - 22, 2009 for Town and Country: Life in Early America.
Founded in 1997, The Charleston Art & Antiques Forum opens Antiques Week with noted national and international arts experts addressing topics relating to connoisseurship and the interpretation of American material culture. The Forum offers superb lectures in small-scale sessions, with lively question and answer sessions that often continue over lunch or dinner. Speakers and participants enjoy a special camaraderie as they study significant collections together, visit historic properties and experience the best in Southern hospitality at receptions in landmark venues.
The 2008 Forum
attracted participants from 22 states, including students from Sotheby’s Institute, New York, plus patrons from 3 foreign countries. Wendell Garrett, Editor-at-Large of The Magazine Antiques, enthused “The Charleston Art & Antiques Forum stages the best fine and decorative arts program in the country today.” Wendy Moonan, antiques writer for The New York Times, has described The Charleston Art & Antiques Forum as “reliably intellectual and utterly provocative, probably due to its intriguing mix of speakers.”
The Charleston Art & Antiques Forum is an opportunity for collectors, scholars and all who want to learn to:
- gain appreciation and in-depth knowledge of paintings and objects which can illuminate our past
- exchange information in formal and informal settings
- explore new research in the field
- engage old friends and make new ones in a collegial setting
- participate in the array of offerings presented throughout Charleston during Antiques Week
The Charleston Art & Antiques Forum
benefits the Gibbes Museum of Art. The Forum’s daytime lectures are held in the Rotunda at the Gibbes. This beautiful setting provides patrons with an opportunity to visit The Charleston Story, a rotating exhibition of paintings, sculpture and miniature portraits from the museum’s permanent collection. Superb examples of Charleston furniture from the Rivers Collection will be on view during Antiques Week. The 2009 program also features an afternoon of lectures “on-site” with experts at Drayton Hall, one of America’s most important country houses. A Plantation Picnic at sunset follows on the beautiful grounds of this historic property.
The Charleston Art & Antiques Forum
is organized by a dedicated group of volunteers. In keeping with its focus on scholarship, the Forum is designating all 2009 proceeds to education and outreach programs at the Gibbes Museum of Art.