Rienzi Symposium


Established in 2014, the biennial Rienzi symposium focuses on topics inspired by the decorative arts, with papers presented by emerging scholars.

Skillful Hands: Apprentices and Networks of Learning 1650–1950

November 9, 2024
The 2024 symposium, Skillful Hands: Apprentices and Networks of Learning 1650–1950, explores the networks of learning available—and unavailable—to diverse groups of people, examining how access to training and materials through apprenticeships shaped craft traditions.

Selected participants present their research on Saturday, November 9, 2024, on the MFAH main campus in Lynn Wyatt Theater, located in the Kinder Building. Entrance is included with Museum admission. The event is live streamed and can be accessed here.

About the Symposium
Before the late 19th century, apprenticeships regulated by European craft guilds were the primary means of training in craft trades. These apprenticeships offered a valuable alternative to traditional education but often excluded women, immigrants, Indigenous and enslaved peoples, and children from low-income families.

With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, informal apprenticeships emerged to adapt to new innovations and technologies. Outside traditional European models, skills were acquired through forced migration, local environments, and informal training in various colonial regions. These diverse experiences contributed to a network of skilled craftspeople, both anonymous and renowned.

Program Schedule

11:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.

 

Session 1

11:15 a.m.

Welcoming Remarks
Christine Gervais, the Fredricka Crain Director, Rienzi

 

11:20 a.m.–12 noon

Keynote: Making Time: Competition and Collaboration in Early Modern European Artisanal Networks

Lauren R. Cannady, PhD, Assistant Professor of Humanities, University of HoustonClear Lake

 

12:05–12:25 p.m.

Tactile Nomenclature: Transgenerational Transmission of Silk Weaving Knowledge in Early Modern Iran

Nader Sayadi, PhD, Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Rochester

 

12:30–12:50 p.m.

Es Artisanes Du Roi: The Public Prohibition and Private Protection of Women’s Artisanal Knowledge in the Paris of Louis XIV, 1661–1715

Jordan Hallmark, PhD student, Harvard University

 

12:50–1 p.m.

Q&A

 

1–1:40 p.m.

Enjoy lunch on your own at Cafe Leonelli at MFAH or a nearby restaurant

 

Session 2

1:40–2 p.m.

The Racial Afterlife of Revolutionary Goldsmithing and Absent Apprenticeships from Haiti to Bordeaux

Benet Ge, Williams College

 

2:05–2:25 p.m.

“Perfect” Imitations: Learning in The Spanish Colonial Philippines

Lalaine Little, PhD, Director, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, PA

 

2:25–2:35 p.m.

Q&A

 

2:35–2:50 p.m.

Break

 

Session 3

2:50–3:10 p.m.   

Haitian Cabinetmaking Community in New Orleans: The Apprentices of Jean Rouseau and Dutreuil Barjon

Lydia Blackmore, Decorative Arts Curator, Historic New Orleans Collection

 

3:15–3:35 p.m.

Passing on Knowledge: Learning the Upholsterer’s Trade in the 19th Century 

Justine Lécuyer, PhD, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France

 

3:35–3:45 p.m.  

Q&A

 

Questions? Contact rienzi@mfah.org

Education programs at Rienzi receive generous funding from the Sterling-Turner Foundation; Alkek and Williams Foundation; Carroll Sterling and Harris Masterson III Endowment; and the Caroline Wiess Law Endowment for Rienzi.

Past Symposium


Hidden Hands: Untold Stories of the Object

Geographic exploration and colonial expansion led to the introduction of new materials and technological innovation in the early modern period. These developments increased demand for goods made of ceramics, glass, exotic woods, textiles, and metals. The refining of raw materials and the production of these goods relied on a diverse labor force of men, women, and children from across the globe. Despite the integral roles these workers played, their names and contributions are often lost to history. Who were they? How did they interact and engage with the new materials? What social, political, and economic forces contributed to excluding their narratives? The symposium invited scholars to reconsider established ideas of craftsmanship and artistic authorship through telling these “hidden” stories.

Exhibition
Hidden Hands: Invisible Workers in Industrial England
September 1, 2021–January 9, 2022

Selected Papers | Program Schedule
10 a.m. Session 1: Industry and Craft

  • “Hidden Hands: Invisible Workers in Industrial England” | Misty Flores, Assistant Curator, Rienzi
  • “All the Names: Recovering the Ignored Authorship of Metal-Casting Patterns” | Javier Fernández Vázquez, PhD Candidate, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM)
  • “Hidden Hands for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Tokyo” | Daichi Shigemoto, PhD Student, The University of Texas at Austin
  • Q&A

11:40 a.m. Session 2: Cultural Exchanges in the Americas

  • “Lightweight Sculpting: About Admiration and Exclusion” | Alfredo A. Ortega-Ordaz, Conservator, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
  • “The Yucatan Hammock as a Product of Mayan Women: Tradition, Adaptation, and Resistance” | Marco Díaz-Güemez, PhD, Research Professor, Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán
  • “A Toilette in Their Fashion: Indigenizing the Dressing Table in the French Atlantic World” | Philippe Halbert, PhD Candidate, Yale University
  • Q&A

1:05 p.m. Session 3: Movement of People and Ideas

  • “Mustafa di Ramadano: Slavery Hidden in the Hardstones of the Cappella dei Principi” | Lindsay Alberts, PhD, Professor, SCAD
  • “The Caribbean Origins of European Craftsmanship: A Case Study in Rum” | Jordan Smith, PhD, Assistant Professor, Widener University
  • “Unraveling Cook’s Voyage: Repopulating the Colonial Exotic” | Bindy Barclay, Freelance Writer and Researcher
  • Q&A


Questions?

Contact rienzi@mfah.org