Curators on Curating: Threads of Power:  Lace from the Textilmuseum St. Gallen
Emma Cormack, Ilona Kos, and Michele Majer
Thursday, June 10, 2021
12 pm
Pay What You Wish*

Curators on Curating goes behind the scenes of upcoming BGC exhibitions to give a window into the curatorial process. We invite you to think with us about exhibition making, material histories, and storytelling.

Threads of Power: Lace from the Textilmuseum St. Gallen. an exhibition scheduled to open at Bard Graduate Center in fall 2022, will trace the development of lace from its sixteenth-century origins to the present, bringing more than 150 pieces of lace from the extensive collection of the Textilmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland, to the US for the first time. Join co-curators Emma Cormack and Michele Majer (BGC) and Ilona Kos (Textilmuseum St. Gallen) to learn how they are adapting and expanding the Textilmuseum’s 2019 exhibition Die Spitzen der Gesellschaft (Lace and High Society) for an American audience, and get a sneak preview of the objects that will be on display. Garments, accessories, portraits, and pattern books will illustrate a wide variety of lacemaking techniques and illuminate how handmade lace was a signifier of status and wealth for men and women in Habsburg Spain, New Spain, and Bourbon France. The final section of the exhibition will explore the development of machine-made lace in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and feature examples of cutting-edge lace in contemporary couture.

*Any donation of $1 or more gratefully accepted!