The fifth annual Charleston Antiques Symposium took place from March 14 through 17, 2002, with a satellite event at Kiawah Island on March 13, 2002. With participants coming from Wisconsin, Texas, Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, the Virginias, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York, there was a sixteen percent increase in attendance over last year’s numbers. As in the past, proceeds from the 2002 Charleston Antiques Symposium will support the School of the Arts and its programs.

The 2002 roster of speakers included Jack L. Lindsey, Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Olivia Alison from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; H. Parrott Bacot, Jr. from Louisiana State University; Dale Couch, Senior Archivist for the Georgia Department of Archives and History; and Gregory J. Landrey, Director of Conservation and Senior Conservator at the Henry Francis Du Pont Winterthur Museum. Several local speakers were on the roster as well, including Diane Chalmers Johnson and Ralph Muldrow.

Diane’s lecture, “Considering a Private Collection of 19th Century American Paintings,” used President and Mrs. Higdon’s collection to study formal and historic elements of American landscape painting and works in other genres. Space considerations made it necessary to limit the number of participants who attended the session, and it sold out prior to the start of the Symposium! The session figured prominently in an article which appeared in The Daytona Beach News Journal on March 24, 2002.

Ralph was joined by Kelly Clark, a graduate of the Historic Preservation and Community Planning Program who now is the Program’s administrator, and Diane Miller, who currently is enrolled in the Program, in presenting a session entitled “Studies on Lowcountry Architecture.” Their presentations focused on architectural studies of Lowcountry structures outside of Charleston. Kelly emphasized her work on resources along Highway 17 north that could create a Heritage Corridor which in turn would be part of a reuse option for Tibwin Plantation. Diane discussed her research on structures found in Brooklands Plantation on Edisto. Ralph presented an overview of the Historic Preservation and Community Planning Program, preservation in Charleston, and some restoration projects that he has worked on in New Jersey.

Proceeds from the 2002 Charleston Antiques Symposium will endow a fund which will provide a stipend for Arts Management students who enroll as interns for the Symposium. It will be the first endowed fund for the Arts Management Program. A public announcement about the endowed fund will be made later in April.