Saturday, January 28, 2017

10 a.m. Refreshments   10:30 a.m. Program
“Collecting, Exhibiting, and Interpreting Textiles
IN
the Fine Art Museum”
with
Alice ZrebiecA
 Avenir Foundation Curator of Textile Art, Denver Art Museum (retired)
and Curatorial Consultant
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Museums across the country collect textiles, costumes and carpets, acquired both through donations and purchase.  The parameters for building and interpreting a collection, however, can vary greatly depending upon the type of museum: historic house, history museum, craft museum, or museum of fine art.  Working within the world of fine art museums for nearly four decades, Alice Zrebiec focuses on presenting textiles as works of art with their own multilayered attributes.  Although even the grandest of tapestries and carpets ultimately have a utilitarian purpose, this deceptive familiarity intrinsic to textiles is a bridge to discovering artistic excellence and creativity manifested through choice of materials, mastery of technique, virtuosity of design, brilliance of imagination, and other criteria.  Dr. Zrebiec will discuss these factors, presenting case histories of exceptional acquisitions, an arm chair tour of select exhibitions, and virtual forays to see treasures that usually live in storage.

A curatorial consultant based in Santa Fe, NM, and principal in Vescen Consulting, Alice Zrebiec received her BA degree in art history from Douglass College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and her MA and Ph.D. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts – New York University. Dr. Zrebiec joined the Denver Art Museum in 1996, and in 2012 she became the Avenir Foundation Curator of Textile Art, overseeing the expansion of the department’s dedicated galleries and the development of its exhibitions and related programs until 2015.  In addition to Creative Crossroads: The Art of Tapestry, she also curated for the DAM the major exhibitions Ikat: Splendid Silks of Central Asia from the Guido Goldman Collection (2001,) Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt (2008.) and many other exhibitions, including twenty thematic exhibitions primarily focusing on aspects of the permanent collection.  Prior to her work with the Denver Art Museum, Zrebiec was curator of textiles for 16 years in the department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in charge of textiles, tapestries, carpets, ecclesiastical vestments, and fans from the Renaissance to the turn of the 20th century.  She has lectured internationally and published on diverse aspects of textiles and tapestries.  TMA/SC members are invited to bring one example of a rug or textile that they find particularly artistic.

Luther Hall,  Lower Level     St. Bede’s Episcopal Church
3590 Grand View Blvd.  Los Angeles, CA  90066-1904
Just south of the 10 freeway, and west of the 405, near the intersection of Centinela and Palms.
Free parking.
Admission:    TMA/SC members  Gratis . . . . .  Guests  $10