Dear Antique Enthusiasts,

Make your plans now to visit Charleston for the eighth annual Charleston Antiques Symposium!

The College of Charleston and Symposium Committee have produced a magnificent symposium for 2005. . From March 12 through 16, the Symposium will focus on the theme of “Life in Early America” – Perfect for a Charleston venue.

American Express Company, with local partnership from American Express Financial Advisors, is proud to again be the Title Sponsor of the 2005 Charleston Antiques Symposium

The second annual Charleston Antiques Week begins with (1) The Charleston Antiques Symposium and concludes with (2) The Charleston International Antiques Show. Please plan to be in Charleston for a full week of scholarship and camaraderie with regional and national connoisseurs of the decorative arts.

Among the noted speakers on the Charleston Antiques Symposium’s 2005 roster are J. Thomas Savage, Senior Vice President and Director of Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and Don Williams, Senior Furniture Conservator at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Materials Research and Education. Other well-recognized speakers include two curators from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation: Margaret Beck Pritchard, Curator of Prints, Maps, and Wallpaper; and Robert Leath, Curator of Historic Interiors. Please refer to the schedule for a full list of our great speakers.

If you need assistance in making travel arrangements, you may want to contact Cecil Wilson at Charleston Travel. His phone number is (843) 556-8646.

As you make your plans for the 2005 Charleston Antiques Symposium, remember that admission is available to both individual sessions and full packages. The packages are at attractive prices for those who wish to participate more comprehensively.

Seating is limited for some sessions, so please return your registration form to Chris Nelson right away!

Sincerely,

Jean Y. Helms, Chair

Charleston Antiques Symposium Committee

For Immediate Release
January 10, 2005

ANTIQUES SYMPOSIUM TO OPEN SECOND ANNUAL CHARLESTON ANTIQUES WEEK

CHARLESTON, SC – The 2005 Charleston Antiques Week opens with the start of the Charleston Antiques Symposium program, “Life in Early America,” and concludes with the Charleston International Antiques Show featuring 32 prominent dealers. The Charleston Antiques Symposium will be held March 12–16, 2005. Lectures and receptions will take place on the College of Charleston campus, in landmark venues and private homes in Charleston. Events on the closing day of the Symposium will be held on Kiawah Island.

Antiques Week brings together the study of decorative arts by leading scholars with a vetted selection of antiques offered for sale in one of America’s most historic cities. The Charleston Antiques Symposium, now in its eighth year, benefits the School of the Arts at the College of Charleston. The Charleston International Antiques Show is a benefit for Historic Charleston Foundation.

Sessions on the 2005 Symposium schedule include “Show and Splendour: Neoclassical Style in the Carolina Lowcountry” by Robert A. Leath, Colonial Williamsburg’s Curator of Historic Interiors, and “Craftsman’s Choices, and the Artifact’s Chances (of Survival)” by Don Williams, Senior Furniture Conservator at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Materials Research and Education. Independent Curator Page Talbott is developing a major exhibition that will focus on Benjamin Franklin, and she will present new research in her lecture entitled “Benjamin Franklin at Home.” The lecture will use key documents as a window into Franklin’s material culture, relating existing artifacts to the documentary evidence and focusing on furnishings acquired in Philadelphia, London and Paris.

Other decorative arts experts on the 2005 Symposium roster of speakers include Sotheby’s Institute of Art Director J. Thomas Savage; Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Curator of Prints, Maps, and Wallpaper Margaret Beck Pritchard; Winterthur Museum’s Senior Curator of Furniture Wendy Cooper; and Betsy Garrett, Vice President, Collections and Interpretation at Strawbery Banke Museum.

This year’s “Life in Early America” program features two special events. “A Day on the Cooper River,” a boat tour exploring plantations and churches from the waterway, will be led by historic architecture scholar John Meffert, and a tour of the Miles Brewton House, one of the nation’s premier private homes, will be conducted by independent scholar and homeowner Patricia Manigault.

American Express Company, with local partnership from American Express Financial Advisors, is proud to be the Title Sponsor of the 2005 Charleston Antiques Symposium. All proceeds benefit the School of the Arts at the College of Charleston, while Symposium internships provide the Arts Management students with practical experience in event planning and management.

Event packages for the 2005 Charleston Antiques Symposium are now on sale. Admission to individual sessions is also available at a range of rates. To purchase admission or for further information about the Symposium, contact Chris Nelson at (843) 953-6315 or nelsonc@cofc.edu.

Following the Charleston Antiques Symposium, the Charleston International Antiques Show will open March 18 and continue through March 21, with a Preview Party on March 17. For information on the Antiques Show, telephone Historic Charleston Foundation at (843) 720-1181 or visit www.cias2005.com.

CHARLESTON ANTIQUES SYMPOSIUM OFFERS SPECIAL KIAWAH PROGRAM

The Eighth Annual Charleston Antiques Symposium takes place March 12–16, 2005, with the closing day’s lectures being held at the Turtle Point Club House on Kiawah Island. A luncheon, for those who purchase the full day program at Kiawah Island, will be provided at a private home. The Kiawah program on March 16 features guest speakers Wendy Cooper, Senior Curator of Furniture at Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Delaware, and Betsy Garrett, Vice President for Collections and Interpretation at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The Symposium benefits the School of the Arts at the College of Charleston. Other Symposium events take place on the College of Charleston campus, in landmark venues and private homes in Charleston.

Cooper will present a lecture entitled “America’s Early Garden Seats: A New Perspective on Painted Furniture.” A noted scholar, lecturer and author, Cooper has been at Winterthur Museum since 1995, becoming the Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Senior Curator of Furniture in 1999. Prior to coming to Winterthur, she was Curator of Decorative Arts at The Baltimore Museum of Art, where she organized the major traveling exhibition Classical Taste in America, 1800-1840 and authored a book by the same title. She has also been on the staff of The Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Cooper’s current focus is Winterthur’s eastern Pennsylvania furniture collection.

The lecture “‘My mode of locomotion is no longer a walk, but rather a half run’: Burdens of Keeping House the Year Round” will be given by Betsy Garrett. She lectures widely throughout the United States on American decorative arts and is frequently consulted by museums and educational institutions on historic interiors and the social/cultural context of the arts. For eleven years, Garrett directed the graduate-level American Arts course for Sotheby’s Education Institute in New York City and was subsequently a Senior Vice President at Christie’s where she directed Christie’s Classes in Connoisseurship. She has published many articles and several books, including the award-winning At Home: The American Family 1750-1870. Currently in charge of Collections and Interpretation at Strawbery Banke Museum, Garrett is working on a book on American childhood, 1700-1900.

Event packages for the Kiawah Program and the 2005 Charleston Antiques Symposium are now on sale. Admission to individual sessions is also available at a range of rates. To purchase admission or for further information about the Symposium, contact Chris Nelson at (843) 953-6315 or nelsonc@cofc.edu or visit www.cofc.edu/sota/symposium/2005.

Chris Nelson
School of the Arts
College of Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina 29424

Telephone: (843) 953-6315
Fax: (843) 953-4988
Email: nelsonc@cofc.edu