Winter Antiques Show Celebrates Its 58th Year With A Lecture Series For The Loan Exhibition, Celebrating Historic Hudson Valley At 60: Rockefeller Patronage In Sleepy Hollow Country January 20, 2012

The Winter Antiques Show announces that a four-part lecture series will be presented in conjunction with the 2012 loan exhibition Celebrating Historic Hudson Valley at 60: Rockefeller Patronage in Sleepy Hollow Country. Topics will explore different aspects of the Historic Hudson Valley, from the jewelry and personal accessories in the Historic Hudson Valley collection to the impact of Rockefeller patronage for American art. 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.

Waddell W. Stillman, President of Historic Hudson Valley, will present Celebrating Historic Hudson Valley at 60 on Friday, January 20 at 2:30 p.m. This illustrated lecture offers an introduction to Historic Hudson Valley’s varied and perhaps surprising museum properties, ranging from a colonial slave provisioning plantation to a church containing stained glass windows by the French Modern masters Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall. Stillman will also discuss how the site’s rich histories and resources are shared with the public through museum programming, special events, web offerings, social media, and the research library.

As the President of Historic Hudson Valley, Stillman serves in various leadership roles promoting natural and historic resource protection and heritage tourism in the Hudson Valley. Most recently, he supervised the design and construction of Historic Hudson Valley’s new headquarters and library building located in Pocantico Hills, NY.

Suzanne Loebl will present America’s Medicis: The Rockefellers and Their Astonishing Cultural Legacy on Sunday, January 22 at 2:30 p.m. A book signing will immediately follow Loebl’s lecture. When John D. Rockefeller Jr. commissioned a great deal of art for the construction of Rockefeller Center during the midst of the Great Depression, Vogue editor Frank Crowninshield praised Rockefeller as “the greatest friend and patron of the arts since Lorenzo de Medici.” Both Rockefeller and his wife Abby Aldrich Rockefeller were passionate about the arts, and in the lecture Loebl details the Rockefeller family’s remarkable impact on the growth of the American art scene in the twentieth century. Loebl is the author of fourteen books, most recently America’s Art Museums.

On Saturday, January 28 at 2:30 p.m., Kathleen Eagen Johnson will present Star Ceramics at Historic Hudson Valley. Johnson’s lecture will explore pottery and porcelain as a way to better understand the collecting interests and daily lives of New Yorkers during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Johnson is currently a museum consultant and formerly curator and director of collections at Historic Hudson Valley. She has written and lectured widely on aspects of American history, arts, and design as well as the state of the museum field. Johnson also serves on the Curatorial Advisory Board for the United States Senate.

Jessa J. Krick presents Style and Sentiment: Personal Accessories from Historic Hudson Valley on Saturday, January 28 at 4:00 p.m. Krick’s lecture will highlight rare examples of jewelry and other precious personal accessories from the Historic Hudson Valley collection. Many of these items belonged to the New York families who were original owners of Historic Hudson Valley’s sites. Period portraits and other documentation provide the historical context for these tiny treasures. Krick currently serves as the collections manager for Historic Hudson Valley. Formerly the senior research assistant for The Brooklyn Museum’s Costume Documentation Project and a collections assistant at The Costume Institute, Krick’s knowledge of fashion and accessories is informed by hands-on work with leading museum collections.

The Winter Antiques Show celebrates its 58th year as America’s most prestigious antiques show, featuring 73 renowned experts in American, English, European, and Asian fine and decorative arts in a fully vetted Show. The Show was established in 1955 by East Side House Settlement, a social services institution located in the South Bronx. All net proceeds from the Show benefit East Side House Settlement. The Winter Antiques Show runs from January 20-29, 2012 at the Park Avenue Armory, 67th Street and Park Avenue, New York City. Show hours are from 12:00 to 8:00 p.m. daily, except Sundays and Thursday, 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. General admission to the Show is $20, which includes the Show’s award winning catalogue. Daily Admission Tickets may be purchased online at www.WinterAntiquesShow.com, or at the Show starting Friday, January 20.