6 pm reception
7 pm lecture

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, world’s fairs were the most important vehicles for debuting advancements in the modern world. Universal in scope, the fairs displayed decorative arts alongside paintings, sculpture, and agricultural products, and they democratized design unlike any previous or concurrent forum. In this lecture, Jason T. Busch will consider how objects at world’s fairs represented new and revived fabrication techniques, cross-cultural influences, nationalistic inspiration, and folkloric traditions, many of them introduced in Georges Hoentschel’s France.

Jason T. Busch is chief curator and the Alan G. and Jane A. Lehman Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Carnegie Museum of Art.