Textiles of the Lowcountry: Charleston and Savannah

Textiles of the Lowcountry: Charleston and Savannah
Collecting, Preserving, and Narrating: A TSA Study Tour
April 2 – 7, 2013
Registration Deadline: February 15, 2013

Join TSA on a unique study tour of the Lowcountry, a 200-mile stretch of coastal South Carolina and Georgia between Charleston and Savannah, a region shaped by cotton production. The Lowcountry presents a romantic landscape of sweeping verandahs, dripping Spanish moss and tidal marshland, but the region is marred by its history of slavery. The tour revisits myths of the Southern Lady and her delicate needlework juxtaposed to the unskilled slaves’ crude products. Building on emerging new perspectives, our small group will explore both the production of domestic antebellum textiles and changing interpretive narratives in a contemporary world. From chintz appliqué quilts to seagrass baskets, we will learn about the fine handwork of southern women preserved in Lowcountry museums and private collections.

Tour leader Jessica Smith, an artist/designer living and working in Savannah and a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design, has arranged special textile-focused visits to historic sites to be augmented by conversations with specially invited researchers, curators and artists. Studio visits and a panel discussion at the Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art will wrap up our tour on the last night.
Go to http://textilesocietyofamerica.org/events/ for details, scholarship, and registration information.