This conference celebrates the opening of the V&A’s new Europe 1600-1815 Galleries. It will introduce some of the new patterns of living that laid the foundations for our modern world. The papers will be presented according to the three main themes that create a narrative structure for the displays and interpretation in the galleries: first, that, for the first time ever, Europeans systematically explored, exploited, and collected resources from Africa, Asia and the Americas in their art and design; second, that France took over from Italy as leader of fashion and art in the second half of the 17th century; and third, that ways of living came to resemble those we know today.

Argument

This Conference celebrates the opening of the V&A’s new Europe 1600-1815 Galleries. It will introduce some of the new patterns of living that laid the foundations for our modern world. The papers will be presented according to the three main themes that create a narrative structure for the displays and interpretation in the galleries: first, that, for the first time ever, Europeans systematically explored, exploited, and collected resources from Africa, Asia and the Americas in their art and design; second, that France took over from Italy as leader of fashion and art in the second half of the 17th century; and third, that ways of living came to resemble those we know today. 
This Conference is supported by The Heritage Lottery Fund

Draft Programme

10.00 -10.30 Registration

10.30 Welcome, Bill Sherman, (Head of Collections and Research, V&A)

10.40 Session One: The Europe Galleries 1600-1815 at the V & A

• Why does 17th and 18thcentury Europe matter now? - John Styles (Professor of History, University of Hertfordshire, Senior Research Fellow, V&A)
• Creating the Europe 1600-1815 Galleries - Lesley Miller (Lead Curator, Europe 1600-1815 Galleries, V&A) and Lucy Trench (Head of Interpretation, Science Museum, formerly Lead Educator, Europe 1600-1815 Galleries, V&A)

11.40 Session Two: Explored and Exploited

• A Global Context for Europe- Beverly Lemire (Henry Marshall Tory Chair, Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta)
• The Cabinet: collecting art and science- Eric Jorink (Tylers Professor of Enlightenment and Religion, Leiden University and a Research Professor, Department of History of Science and Scholarship, Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands, The Hague)
• Displaying Spain and Spanish America, 1600-1720 - Kirstin Kennedy (Curator of Metalwork, V & A)

13.00 Discussion

13.15 Lunch

14:00 Session Three: The Rise of France

• The Invention of comfort in the modern city - Joan DeJean, (Trustee Professor of Romance Languages, University of Pennsylvania)
• Luxury and Shopping in the long eighteenth century - Natacha Coquery (Professor of History, University of Lyon II; INHA, Paris)
• Displaying French Historical Interiors: La Tournerie and the Serilly Cabinet - Joanna Norman (Senior Curator, Research Department, V & A)

15.15 Refreshments

15:45 Session Four: Then and Now

• The Impact of the Enlightenment - Colin Jones (Professor of History, Queen Mary’s, University of London)
• Fashion in Print - Patrick Steorn (Director, Thielska Galleriet, Stockholm; participant in HERA Fashioning the Early Modern Research Project)
• Bringing interactivity into the Galleries: the Masquerade - Dawn Hoskin and Nadine Langford (Assistant Curator and Assistant Educator, Europe 1600-1815, V & A)

16:45 Closing Remarks on V&A’s approach to gallery development - Sofía Rodriguez Bernis (Director of Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, Madrid)

Book Here: https://shop.vam.ac.uk/whatson/index/view/id/864/event/Creating-the-Europe-1600-1815-Galleries/dt/2016-04-08/eType/1/free/2