The Decorative Arts Trust announced that their annual research grants will be awarded to 14 recipients in doctoral and masters programs.

Each year the Trust awards research grants to graduate students working on a Master’s thesis or PhD dissertation in a field related to the decorative arts. The Trust encourages projects that advance diversity in the study of American decorative arts.

The Trust also partners with other organizations to offer grants sponsored by the Marie & John Zimmermann Fund, the Decorative Arts Society of Orange County, and the Center for American Art.

The projects supported by 2021 research grants represent diverse cultures, materials, time periods, and geographies. The recipients are: Laura Beltrán-Rubio, Alexandra M. Macdonald, and Morgan McCullough from William & Mary; Catherine Cyr, Kelly Fu, and Jena Gilbert-Merrill (Marie Zimmermann Grant) from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture; Susan Eberhard from the University of California, Berkeley (DARTS Grant); Michael Hartman from the University of Delaware; Delanie Linden from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ramey Mize from the University of Pennsylvania; Lauryn Smith from Case Western Reserve University; Astrid Graves Tvetenstrand from Boston University; Rachel Winter from the University of California, Santa Barbara; and Margaret Wood from George Washington University.

Shown here is an image representing the work of 2021 Research Grant recipient Lauryn Smith who is analyzing the cabinets of Amalia van Solms-Braunfels (1602-1675), Princess of Orange, who cultivated a global social network to acquire objects. Lauryn will travel to the Peabody Essex Museum to compare items listed in the extant inventories of Amalia’s cabinets to museum objects, including this porcelain Elephant Pouring Vessel (Kendi) made by artists in Jingdezhen, China, c. 1600. (Museum purchase, made possible by an anonymous donor, 2004. AE86475.)

The deadline to apply for Decorative Arts Trust research grants is April 30 annually. For more information, visit decorativeartstrust.org, email thetrust@decorativeartstrust.org, or call 610.627.4970.