Colonial Williamsburg
Conferences, Forums, and Workshops
The Office of Conferences, Forums, and Workshops presents a broad range of
high-quality programs that address issues of historical and contemporary significance
as well as focusing on the decorative arts, material culture, historic trades
and horticulture. Skilled professionals at Colonial Williamsburg are joined
by distinguished members of the academic and professional communities to present
these programs.
2008-09 Program Schedule
- 62nd Colonial Williamsburg Garden Symposium
- Celebrating the Ameican Garden:
Bringing People and Plants Together
- May 4-7, 2008
- Colonial Williamsburg’s 62nd Garden Symposium, Celebrating the American
Garden: Bringing People and Plants Together, will be held May 4–7, 2008. Keynote speaker
Lynden Miller, director of The Conservatory Garden in New York’s Central Park, will speak about
garden design with an emphasis on plants that can be used to soften and civilize city life and
change the way people behave and treat each other.
Applying Lynden’s philosophy on a smaller scale, other symposium speakers, including horticulturist,
author, lecturer and radio personality Andre Viette and Bob Lyons, director of graduate programs
at Longwood Gardens, will discuss how to create gardens that "nourish the soul." Topics of discussion
will include seasonal planting, mixed borders, and effective combinations of plants.
- Registration materials
and more information
- Oxen in the New and Old World
- October 30-November 1, 2008
- Relied upon for strength and intelligence, as well as serving as a food source,
oxen have been invaluable to mankind through the centuries. Oxen remained the main beasts of burden
until late in the nineteenth century when horses and mules replaced them. At The Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation, rare-breed oxen have served as part of historical interpretation for many years.
Join us this October for a three-day symposium on oxen and learn how they have been used over time, in the
old and new worlds, and explore the practical aspects of their use today. The program will include lectures,
demonstrations, and panel discussions featuring oxen experts from around the world.
Colonial Williamsburg acknowledges the generosity of Ronald R. and Janet S. Fox of Piqua, Ohio, in support
of the Oxen Conference.
- Registration materials
and more information
- The Many Layered Meanings of Costume
- October 31-November 2, 2008
- The Southeastern Region of the Costume Society of America announces its 2008 Annual Symposium, to
be hosted by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, The College of William and Mary, and The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.
Symposium highlights include: juried paper presentations and research exhibits, behind-the-scenes tours of host
facilities, new Preserving Our Past workshops, new quilted clothing and object exhibitions, and an All
Hallows’ Eve Costume Dinner and Catwalk.
- Registration details not yet available;
more
information
- Metalworking for Revolution
- November 16-19, 2008
- "Metalworking for Revolution" is a three-day symposium exploring the role of
metalworkers in supplying the equipment needed to fight the American Revolution. It will focus on
the materials, technologies, and skills of blacksmiths, founders, silversmiths, gunsmiths,
tinsmiths, and toolmakers. Colonial Williamsburg will present the program November 16-19, 2008.
During the early years of the Revolution, Americans turned to their own artisans to produce goods no
longer available from England. The military was no exception, and American metalworkers found themselves with
orders for buttons, buckles, gorgets, and cooking utensils as well as swords, tomahawks, muskets, bayonets,
and entrenching tools. In some cases, they set up large manufactories to cast artillery barrels and
mass produce small arms. Technologies included forging, welding, heat-treating, casting, sheet-metal work,
filing, boring, punching, die-sinking, and engraving.
Members of Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Trades program and guest speakers will demonstrate these processes and make
many of these goods. They will use eighteenth-century tools and methods. Most presentations will take place
in the Hennage Auditorium at the DeWitt Wallace Museum, where close-up video will show the action in
detail. Other demonstrations will take place in trade shops in the Historic Area.
- Registration details not yet available;
more
information
- Working Wood in the 18th Century
- January 7-10, January 11-14, 2009
- Registration details not yet available
- Colonial Williamsburg Antiques Forum
- February 1-5, 2009
- Registration details not yet available
- "Quilted Fashion": 400 Years of Quilting
- February 22-25, 2009
- The process of quilting textiles to enhance their warmth, comfort, and luxury has been around for
thousands of years. And quilts still speak to people today, whether it is the concept of creating beauty from
small bits and pieces, giving one’s self through a special handmade gift, or connecting with a past ancestor
through his or her surviving quilt. To some, quilts evoke family, friends, warmth, and tradition. To others, quilts
are striking art objects hung on the wall.
This symposium brings together nationwide experts for two days of illustrated lectures on quilts and quilted clothing
from 1600 to the present. Optional workshops and special behind-the-scenes tours give participants the opportunity
to learn a new technique or see museum artifacts close up.
- Registration details not yet available;
more
information
- 63rd Colonial Williamsburg Garden Symposium
- May 3-6 , 2009
- Registration details not yet available
- "A very large curious & compleat Assortment": Textiles for Interiors, 1730–1830
- September 20-22, 2009
- An understanding of the design, construction, and materials of textile furnishings is of
primary importance to scholars and designers who focus on the recreation of traditional and historic
interiors. For more than 25 years, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has taken the lead in reinterpreting
the use of textiles in historic interiors from the eighteenth century.
This symposium gathers the leading American and English scholars in the field to review the design and composition
of textile furnishings available between 1730 and 1830, including upholstery, bed and window treatments, and floor
coverings. Complementing the lectures will be special tours in Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area and optional
workshops. Particular attention will be given to the accurate, yet practical, application of these design tenets
for today’s interiors. Because it is becoming more and more difficult to find authentic reproduction textiles,
hardware, passementerie, and qualified fabricators, Colonial Williamsburg will provide a venue for well-respected
vendors and booksellers who are able to supply the essential resources for fabricating authentic textile décor.
- Registration details not yet available;
more
information
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