November 2024

Annual conference ICOM-ICDAD

„Dwelling, Design, and the Decorative Arts“

“Peabody Essex Museum, Salem Massachusetts”

The Peabody Essex Museum, in Salem, Massachusetts, is the oldest continually operating museum in the United States, founded in 1799. And so it is fitting that it is also the first museum to install period rooms within its galleries as well as being an early leader in the preservation of historic houses. This commitment to “rooms” reflects a longstanding preoccupation with the domestic sphere in the world of decorative arts and design. Many of the decorative objects found in museums today were originally made for use in the home and by families, and so their interpretation and study must grapple with the domestic in a myriad of ways. How do domestic objects reflect the values and mores of their time? How do they declare or hide their production histories? How do homes function as constructed spaces, and how do museums reconstruct them or, as is sometimes the case, create imagined interiors? Questions around gender, comfort, emotion, taste, function, politics, nationhood, technology are just a few of the topics that emerge when considering the decorative arts of the home. This conference explores domesticity and the home through decorative arts and design, and we invite papers that interpret all these terms (domestic, home, decorative arts, design) from a broad perspective. The town of Salem and the Peabody Essex Museum itself have numerous homes dating from the seventeenth through early nineteenth centuries; however, this conference also welcomes papers that explore the domestic sphere both before and after the heyday of Salem’s historic architecture. In addition, explorations of non-traditional domestic spaces and their objects (ships, trains, institutional homes) are equally welcome, as we are interested in the “production of home” through objects in unexpected places. 

How to Apply: Send an abstract of 250–300 words and a short CV to ICDAD_Salem_2024@pem.org by July 30. Applicants will be informed of results by August 26. 

Proposals must be written in English, and participants will also be expected to give their presentations in English.

Presentations should be 15 minutes in length and include a visual presentation component (Powerpoint, Google Slides, etc.). Results of the conference may be published, and participants will have the opportunity to participate in the publication should that occur.

Presenters will be expected to cover their own registration and travel expenses.Travel grants for junior ICOM members (under 40 years old) will be available. Information will follow for those applications. 

Please note: ICDAD welcomes abstracts from museum professionals worldwide, members and non-members. However, all participants must be individual members (voting or non-voting) or representatives of institutional members of ICOM and ICDAD at the time of the conference. Please check with your national committee of ICOM beforehand if you are eligible for membership.