Olivia Alison
Saturday, March 16, 2002
2:00 - 3:30
High Style in the Low Country: Classical Savannah 1800 - 1840
Room 309, Simons Center for the Arts

Biography: Olivia Alison is the Director of Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections as well as Director of Major Gifts for The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. She received a Diplôme de Civilization et de Langue Française from the Université de Paris, La Sorbonne and her Bachelor of Arts in Art History and French from Hollins College in Virginia. Ms. Alison holds a Master of Art History from the University of Delaware, and she has don graduate work at the University of North Carolina through the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts and at the Attingham Summer School for the Study of the English Country House in Great Britain. Prior to going to Williamsburg, Ms. Alison was the Director of the Owens-Thomas Preservation Project for the Telfair Museum of Art, Owens-Thomas House. She directed the operations of Savannah's most important historic house museum and, as Curator of Decorative Arts, was responsible for managing, exhibiting, and conserving decorative arts tat the Owens-Thomas House as well as the Telfair Academy. Ms. Alison's publications include The House that Jay Built: The Owens-Thomas House Preservation Project, and she was the editor of Classical Savannah: Fine and Decorative Arts 1800 - 1840. She has presented lectures for the American Decorative Arts Forum in San Francisco, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Colonial Williamsburg Antiques Forum.

Synopsis: The taste for classically inspired architecture, furniture and decorative arts that swept the country during the first half of the 19th century made a profound impact on Savannah, Georgia. The architect William Jay arrived in 1817, bringing the up-to-date neo-classical style of Regency England. The elegant furnishings and interiors of Jay's classical villas and a wealth of other decorative arts with a documented local provenance illustrate Savannah's lively shipping industry and underscore her rich cultural heritage. Northern cabinetmakers such as Duncan Phyfe of New York City and Joseph Barry, and Thomas Cooke of Philadelphia had retail outlets in Savannah, along with a wealth of documented local artisans. Yet in spite of the large numbers of area cabinetmakers, there is a dearth of surviving Savannah-made furniture. Ms. Alison discusses recent discoveries and invites you to help solve this missing link in the study of American decorative arts.

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