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Wednesday, April 19, 2017

The Top 7 Reasons to Take a Course on Chinese Decorative Arts

Susan Lahey, MA, ISA AM
This summer, I have the pleasure of teaching a course for ISA on Chinese decorative arts from the ancient to the contemporary.

The course takes place June 21-23 in Sarasota, Florida, with a field trip day scheduled at the beginning of the course followed by two in-classroom days. The course will help appraisers become familiar with a wide range of Chinese decorative arts, including jades, bronzes, snuff bottles, cloisonné, ivories, textiles, lacquerware, and ceramics. Context and history are key elements of the course, as we will discuss how Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism shaped the aesthetics of Chinese art, how the decorative arts evolved through dynastic and Imperial Chinese history, and what the current art market looks like and how to identify fakes. 

If you haven’t registered for the course yet, sign up on the ISA website!

A decorative jade vessel

On the course’s field trip day, participants will take a special tour of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, as there are two special exhibitions visiting there in June. The first is Eternal Offerings: Chinese Ritual Bronzes from the Minneapolis Institute of Art, showcasing nearly 100 Chinese bronze objects used to conduct religious rituals, record significant events, and represent elite status from the Shan through Han dynasties (1600 BCE to 220 CE). We will also visit the exhibition Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, an outdoor collection of 12 bronze sculptures by one of the most renowned Chinese sculptors and installation artists, Ai Weiwei. 

Ai Weiwei's Zodiac Heads

In addition to these two special exhibitions, we will also visit the newly-opened Center for Asian Art at the Ringling, which permanently houses more than 2,000 examples of Chinese ceramics and traces the history of Asian art and culture from the Mediterranean and Eurasia to the New World through the Silk Road and trade development. Objects in this collection emphasize the dialogue between the ancient and the contemporary in Chinese art, such as a 19th century limestone scholar’s rock flanked opposite Zhan Wang’s 21st century stainless-steel Artificial Rock #124.  

Dragon detail from porcelain object

Don’t miss your opportunity to take a tour of outstanding collections of art and develop a strong knowledge base around Chinese decorative arts. 

With that, I present to you:

The Top 7 Reasons to Take a Course on Chinese Decorative Arts
  1. Have the opportunity to handle bronzes, jades, textiles, ceramics, cloisonné and more examples of Chinese decorative arts
  2. Learn strategies for identifying fakes
  3. Understand how Chinese art and philosophy impacted Western art
  4. Enhance your appraisal and research skills through learning about resources, dealers and the current market and collecting trends
  5. Learn about manufacture techniques for good, better, best distinctions in all media
  6. Broaden your horizons. As they say, “Every generalist appraiser should also develop a specialty.”
  7. Connect with appraisal colleagues while in sunny Florida!
What are you waiting for? Sign up for the course today!

Scholarships for ISA’s education courses are available through the Foundation for Appraisal Education, with applications due May 1. There is also a $200 discount available for those who register for both the Chinese Decorative Arts course and the Appraisal of Japanese Prints course in Sarasota this summer. Contact ISA headquarters at 312.981.6778 to receive this discount or for more information.

- Susan Lahey, MA, ISA AM

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Assets 2017 in Review

With another successful installment of Assets behind us, we'd first like to extend our gratitude to those who made the conference possible, including the Board, the Annual Conference Committee, and all the speakers, attendees and sponsors.

Assets is always a reminder that our members are the most important part of ISA. The best part of conference is seeing the connections made between our members and the enriching conversations that come from those connections.



Thanks to the dedicated work of the Annual Conference Committee, this year's programming and educational offerings were outstanding, with highlights including the ISA member panel, breakout sessions, presentations on appraising an archive and estate sales, specialty tours around Chicago, and more.

ISA member panel

We also made a major announcement at Assets about a new member benefit: the ISA Job Board. The Job Board is a place where members can post or find appraisal work, including both remote and in-person opportunities. If you need temporary assistance with a project or are looking for opportunities to grow your appraisal skills, visit our site for more information!

Looking to relive your favorite moments of Assets 2017? Don't forget to tune in on April 18th at 2pm central time as Christine Guernsey presents a webinar full of Assets 2017 highlights. The webinar is complimentary and you can register here. And don't forget to "Like" ISA on Facebook and visit our page to see photographs from the meeting.

The ISA Board thanks everyone who helped make
Assets 2017 a success!

The awards brunch was held on Monday, April 3, where we recognized the members who have contributed positively to ISA throughout the past year. We'd like to congratulate the following award recipients:

Distinguished Service Award
Maureen Winer, ISA CAPP

Distinguished Service Award: ISA Instructor
Kirsten Rabe Smolensky, ISA CAPP

Lamp of Knowledge Award
Cindy Charleston-Rosenberg, ISA CAPP

Rising Leader Award
Kelly Juhasz, ISA
Sanjay Kapoor, ISA

FAE Award
Meredith Meuwly, ISA CAPP

Outgoing Leadership Award
Steve Roach, JD, ISA CAPP
Marian Aubry, ISA CAPP

President's Award
Perri Guthrie, ISA CAPP

Lifetime Achievement Award
Judith Martin, ISA CAPP

We'd also like to recognize the recipients of the Life Member Award:
Charles Barry Goldstein, ISA CAPP
Daphne Rosenzweig, PhD, ISA CAPP

As well as welcome our incoming class of new ISA CAPPs:
Brady Dreasher, ISA CAPP
Lisa Garcia, ISA CAPP
Amy Goodell, ISA CAPP
Lisa Hudspeth, ISA CAPP
Holly Nelson, ISA CAPP
Jeffrey Pearson, ISA CAPP
Darlene Wong, ISA CAPP

Save the Date! We'll see you at next year's conference, March 9-12, 2018 at the Westin Pasadena in Pasadena, California.