Dale Couch
Thursday, March 14, 2002
Opening Night Speaker
7:00 - 8:30
The Development of Early Georgian Decorative Arts: Historical Demographics as a Basis of Style
Location: Room 309, Simons Center for the Arts

Reception at Saks Fifth Avenue (transportation to the reception will be provided)

Biography: Dale Couch is Senior Archivist at the Georgia Department of Archives and History. A native South Carolinian, he took his BS in History from the University of South Carolina. Mr. Couch also is a graduate of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts’ (MESDA) Institute for Southern Material Culture and the Emory Institute for Archival Administration. Mr. Couch’s publications include book reviews in historical and professional journals as well as an article on chairs from Mecklenberg, North Carolina, in The Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts. He has participated in various exhibitions and research projects which have focused on Georgia’s decorative arts, and he has consulted for numerous Georgia Historical Societies and Museums. As a lecturer, Mr. Couch has appeared before historical and patriotic societies. He serves on the Decorative Arts Advisory Board of the Georgia Museum of Art, where he will be presenting a paper regarding settlement history of the Savannah River Basin for the First Annual Henry D. Greene Symposium for the Decorative Arts.

Synopsis: Decorative Arts styles can be viewed as expressions of regional and ethnic identities. Early Georgia experienced the transference of regional cultures from the Chesapeake Region, the Carolina Lowcountry and from various points in the American Backcountry. These forces combined with direct immigration from Europe and Africa, and trade connections with the Carribean and major American cities forged the cultural products we identify as Georgia decorative arts.

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