The Preservation Society of Newport County with U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, Franklin & Company, and Christie’s presents Gilded Age Art, Design & Technology on Sunday, April 23 through Wednesday, April 26, 2017 at the Hotel Viking Conference Center in Newport, Rhode Island.
The Gilded Age arose from the effort to reconcile modern industrial technology with the artistic vocabulary of the past – both real and imaginary. Many of Newport’s summer colonists made their fortunes in industry, and were instrumental in promoting the widespread adoption of advances like steam engines, electric lighting, central heating, refrigeration and automobiles. But jubilation at modern progress was tinged with nostalgia for pre-industrial styles and craftsmanship, giving rise to a host of inventive, eclectic expressions in material culture. From the romantic Medievalism of Ruskin, Henry Adams and William Morris to the bold new iconography of the Statue of Liberty and the Newport mansions, this symposium will explore the range of ways in which Gilded Age patrons and designers forged a new American identity, celebrating innovation while remaining firmly rooted in tradition.
Speakers will include Richard Guy Wilson of University of Virginia on The Dynamo versus the Palazzo, Richard W. Rydell of Montana State University on America’s Gilded Age World Fairs, Libby O’Connell of the History Channel on From Caviar to Leek Pie: Food and Society in America’s Gilded Age, Kelly Conway of the Corning Museum of Glass on Transparency at the Table: Glass in the Gilded Age, and John Stuart Gordon of Yale University on The Polite Implements of Eating: Innovation & Fantasy in Nineteenth-Century America. And that’s just Monday. For a list of other events visit http://www.newportmansions.org/learn/newport-symposium/symposium-program
A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hotel Viking for participants at a reduced rate. Contact the Hotel at 800-556-7126 and mention you are participating in the Symposium.
