Dylis Blum will speak at the Modern Design History Seminar on Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Her talk is entitled “From Industry to Art: Collecting and Exhibiting Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.”
Since the founding of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1876, textiles have been a cornerstone of the institution’s collections. Dr. Blum’s presentation will examine the textile collection from its beginnings as a resource for industry to recent projects with artists through the lens of acquisitions, displays, and exhibitions.
Dilys Blum is the Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior
Curator of Costume and Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of
Art. After graduating with a degree in art history from Connecticut
College, she completed her graduate studies in the UK at the University of
Manchester and the Courtauld Institute of Art. Since joining the museum in
1987 she has curated over forty exhibitions on historic and contemporary
textiles, costume, and fashion. She has written on a wide range of subjects
from African American quilts to fashion and Surrealism. She was curator of the
acclaimed exhibition Shocking: the Art and Fashion of Elsa
Schiaparelli (2003), Roberto Capucci: Art into Fashion (2011)
and most recently Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love (2014).