(NEW YORK, NY—January 16, 2014) The Winter Antiques Show announces a special five-part lecture series to be presented in conjunction with the 2014 loan exhibition Fresh Take, Making Connections at the Peabody Essex Museum. Topics will explore the diverse collection of the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), from American marine art to Indian export textiles.  For the 18th year, the loan exhibition is sponsored by Chubb Personal Insurance.  All lectures take place in the Tiffany Room at the Park Avenue Armory, 67th Street and Park Avenue, New York City. Seating is on a first-come basis and is complimentary with admission to the Show.

On Saturday, January 25 at 2:30 p.m., Austen Barron Bailly will present Courting Classics: Tradition and Innovation at the Peabody Essex Museum. A taste for classical style and traditions has shaped the production of American art and PEM's collections. This lecture highlights key examples from the American art collection at PEM to explore classical taste and its evolution in the objects, their interpretation and presentation in the museum's galleries.

Austen Barron Bailly is The George Putnam Curator of American Art at PEM. Prior to joining PEM in 2013, Ms. Bailly was associate curator of American art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and a research assistant in the department of American paintings and sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She received her B.A. from Vassar College, her M.A. from the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art, and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her current exhibition projects include presenting LACMA's California Design: Living in a Modern Way, 1930-1965 at PEM in March 2014; Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood, opening at PEM in 2015; and Island Impressionist: Childe Hassam and Isles of Shoals, co-organized with the North Carolina Museum of Art for 2016. 

Daniel Finamore will present Masters and Masterworks of American Marine Art on Saturday, January 25 at 4:00 p.m. This talk will explore some of the greatest American marine paintings and decorative arts along with the techniques, intentions and cultural milieus of the artists who created them. What makes a masterpiece of maritime art? How can something be interpreted as a work of "maritime" vs. "fine" art, and can it be both? Works by Buttersworth, Lane and other well-acknowledged masters of the genre will be examined alongside those of little known or even anonymous artists whose creations nonetheless reveal comparable talent.

Daniel Finamore is the Russell W. Knight Curator of Maritime Art and History at PEM, where he has organized more than fifteen exhibitions. He has written over 40 articles and chapters for academic and popular publications, and is the author and/or editor of five books. He lectures internationally on the art and artifacts of the maritime world and appears regularly in maritime-related television documentaries and news shows.

Around the World of Art and Culture—In 12 Objects or Less will be presented by Lynda Hartigan on Sunday, January 26 at 2:30 p.m. The Peabody Essex Museum is a museum of global art and culture, from the Americas to Asia and the Pacific. Chief Curator Lynda Hartigan takes you on a journey around the world of PEM's collection through a select group of works treasured for their aesthetic quality and the rich and diverse stories they tell about the intersection of art, culture, and creative expression.

Since 2003, Hartigan has led an innovative, ambitious and award-winning curatorial and exhibition program at PEM, where she also oversees the museum’s publishing, exhibition design, registration, collection management and conservation departments, as well as the museum’s visiting committees.  The leading scholar on American artist Joseph Cornell, Hartigan’s expertise in American art, especially in modern, folk and outsider, and African American art, has yielded numerous widely recognized exhibitions and publications. Prior to joining PEM, Hartigan was chief curator of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C. Hartigan is a graduate of the Claremont Graduate University/Getty Leadership Institute.

Karina Corrigan will present The Other Export Arts: Indian Export Textiles and Luxury Goods for America on Sunday, January 26 at 4:00 p.m. In 1784, the ship United States departed from Philadelphia for Pondicherry, becoming the first American vessel to land on the Indian subcontinent and ushering in a period of lucrative, direct trade in luxury goods from India. Fashionable American women announced both their affluence and their taste for the exotic by adorning themselves in Indian cotton, silk, and wool. Culinary, linguistic and even philosophical trends in the 19th century also bore evidence of Americans’ increased knowledge of Indian culture – Indian ginger and spices enhanced meals on American tables and Hindi words such as pajamas, bungalow, juggernaut, and Brahmins were introduced into the English language.

Karina H. Corrigan is the H.A. Crosby Forbes Curator of Asian Export Art at PEM. She received a B.A. in Art History from Wellesley College, an MS in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MA from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture.  Corrigan lectures and publishes on many aspects of Asian export art and has organized seven exhibitions drawn from PEM’s notable collections including Taj Mahal, the Building of a Legend and Fish, Silk, Tea, Bamboo: Cultivating an Image of China. She served as the coordinating curator for PEM’s nationally traveling exhibition Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection. With colleagues from the Rijksmuseum, she is presently organizing Asia in Amsterdam, an exhibition on Asia's impact on art and life in the Netherlands during the 17th century.

On Monday, January 27 at 2:30 p.m. Dean Lahikainen will present Carving an American Style, the Genius of Samuel McIntire.  Celebrated as both an architect and wood carver, Samuel McIntire’s work continues to excite collectors and scholars interested in the art and culture of Federal America. McIntire (1757-1811) played a critical role in developing a taste for ornamental carving that expressed the aspirations of the new nation. Dean Lahikainen, an authority on McIntire’s work and the author of an award-winning book on his carving career, will share some of his insights in how to authenticate McIntire’s carvings, particularly on furniture.

Dean Lahikainen has served as the Carolyn and Peter Lynch Curator of American Decorative Art at PEM since 1992. A graduate of Syracuse University, he has organized numerous exhibitions and directed several historic house restorations, including the Gardner-Pingree House, the finest surviving domestic structure by architect Samuel McIntire. He also organized a major exhibition about McIntire’s carving career and wrote the book Samuel McIntire: Carving an American Style that won the New England Book Prize in 2008.

Other special events at the 2014 Show include the Opening Night Party on January 23, the inaugural 1stdibs Design Friday on January 24, Young Collectors Night on January 30, and an Expert Eye Lecture Series with Book Signings. Click here for details and a complete schedule. 

About the Winter Antiques Show:

The Winter Antiques Show will run from January 24 to February 2, 2014, at the Park Avenue Armory, 67th Street and Park Avenue, New York City. Hours are 12:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. daily except Sundays and Thursday, 12:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Daily admission to the Show is $25, which includes the Show’s award-winning catalogue. To purchase tickets for the Opening Night Party on January 23, 2014, or Young Collectors Night on January 30, 2014, call (718) 292-7392 or visit this link on the Show’s website.

About East Side House Settlement:

East Side House Settlement was founded in 1891 to help immigrants and lower income families on the East Side of Manhattan. In 1962, it moved to the South Bronx where it serves 8,000 residents annually within one of America’s poorest congressional districts, the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx. Among the initiatives that focus on educational attainment as the gateway out of poverty is the innovative and highly acclaimed Mott Haven Village Preparatory School. For more information, please visit www.eastsidehouse.org.