Koret Auditorium

Sandra Poza, Lecturer

Image: Unidentified artist, Boston, Massachusetts, High chest of drawers, ca. 1753–1750.  Walnut, walnut veneer, maple, pine, and brass. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Peter McBean.

Elena Phipps, independent scholar and former Senior Museum Conservator with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the author of Cochineal Red: The Art History of a Color (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2010). The Textile Arts Council is pleased to welcome Ms. Phipps as she traces the origins of the famous insect-derived dye in the ancient Americas and its dissemination by global trade routes to the Old World. Thirty years of research and collaboration with scientists have enabled her to trace the world movements of this coveted dyestuff, illustrated by examples from the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Interesting cultural, technical, and historical questions arise from these studies. A dye that was once relegated to history and replaced by modern chemical colorants has attained new status with today's awareness of ecology.

Natasa Morovic, Conservator, FAMSF 

Image: Charles Caryl Coleman, Azaleas and Apple Blossoms, ca. 1879. Oil on canvas. Museum purchase, Roscoe and Margaret Oakes Income Fund, gift of Barbro and Bernard Osher, J. Burgess & Elizabeth Jamieson Endowment Fund, and bequest of William A. Stimson