MESDA Summer Institute

Material Culture and Decorative Arts of the Southern Backcountry

June 25 - July 20, 2012

The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts is accepting applications from graduate students, decorative arts professionals, and independent scholars for the 36th MESDA Summer Institute.

The 2012 Institute emphasizes the material culture of the early southern Backcountry, including Tennessee, Kentucky and the piedmont and western regions of Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. Students study the region’s economic, social and cultural history through a multidisciplinary approach that includes current methods of research, interpretation, preservation, and analysis of material culture. The program’s month-long curriculum includes lectures, discussions, workshops, artifact studies, research projects, and a six-day study trip to Tennessee.

The Visiting Scholar

The visiting scholar for the 2012 MESDA Summer Instutue will be Dr. Carroll Van West, Professor of History and Director of the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University.   Dr. West’s research interests lie in 19th and 20th century southern and western history as well as architecture and material culture. He served as the editor of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly from 1993-2010. His most recent book is A History of Tennessee Arts: Creating Traditions and Expanding Horizons (University of Tennessee Press, 2004), the state’s first comprehensive history of the arts. Other publications include The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture published by the Tennessee Historical Society in 1998 (co-winner of the Tennessee History Book Award and received an AASLH Award of Merit in 1999); and Tennessee's Historic Landscapes, a study of history and architecture, published by the University of Tennessee Press in 1995. He also serves as editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture web site (University of Tennessee Press).  In addition to Dr. West, the MESDA Summer Institute faculty is composed of members of the staffs of MESDA, Old Salem Museums & Gardens, the University of Virginia, and guest lecturers.

About the 2012 Summer Institute

The program’s month-long curriculum includes lectures, discussions, workshops, artifact studies, research projects, and a study trip to the Valley of Virginia and Tennessee.

Three hours of graduate credit are awarded through the University of Virginia’s Graduate Program in the History of Art and Architecture. Graduate students in the fields of American history, material culture, museum studies, historic preservation, and related fields, and professionals in the museum, education, or related fields are encouraged to apply. 

For further information please contact Sally Gant, Director of Education Programs (MESDAEducation@oldsalem.org or call 336-721-7360)

Download more information, including an application

About the MESDA Summer Institute

Since the 1970s the MESDA Summer Institute has provided graduate students, museum professionals, and independent scholars with an in-depth education in the decorative arts and material culture of the early American South.  The focus of the MESDA Summer Institute rotates between the three regions of the MESDA South: the the Backcountry (in 2012), the Chesapeake (next in 2013), and the Lowcountry (next in 2014),.