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

The Clarion List, Our Newest Affinity Business Partner

We're always incredibly excited to welcome a new company into the fold as an ISA Affinity Business Partner (ABP), and in the case of The Clarion List, this addition to the ABP family comes with a special offer to ISA members!

The Clarion List is the leading online resource for sourcing art service companies. Their searchable, sortable, free database with ratings and reviews includes 6000+ art companies in the US and Europe across dozens of service categories. It is Clarion's hope that that your potential clients find them a helpful resource when you need to source new art service providers both at home and in new markets, like storage companies, transport firms, installers, framers, lenders, insurance brokers, law firms, conservators, security firms, risk consultants, collection software, lighting companies and more.

And, just as importantly, they want their audience to find YOU when in need of an art appraiser. They have partnered with the ISA to offer a discount on their premium packages, enabling you to optimize your listing with more information, add your logo and other images, and increase your chances for lead generation. Premium listers will also be able to add the ISA logo to their listing, which will display in search results and on your individual listing, enabling their audience to understand your qualification at a glance.

The ISA badge on your Clarion enhanced listing serves to not only help you stand out on the website but to also grow the public's awareness of ISA credentials as an important distinction when choosing an appraiser.

Next Steps:

• Claim your free listing - do a keyword search for your company name or search for your listing with our List of Appraisers, then click “Claim This Listing”


• Not listed? Contact Clarion.


• Edit your basic listing information.


• Consider one of their brand-building premium plans, starting at just $20/month. Details: clarionlist.com/learnmore


• Enter code ISA30 before checkout to receive 30% off either plan

Take advantage of this special offer today from The Clarion List, our newest ABP.

5 WEEKS AWAY!

♫Oh the weather outside is frightful, but in April it'll be more delightful, and with only FIVE WEEKS to go, might as well let it snow let it snow let it snow♫

Thankfully, April is usually pretty nice in Chicago. That being said, there are only five weeks until Assets 2013! That means we're really getting into gear for the meeting, but it also means there are some deadlines that could stand to be noted several more times so that nobody misses them.

MARCH 15th
EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION

The early bird registration rates will end on Friday, March 15th. After then, registration rates go up by $75, so if you haven't registered yet there is absolutely no time like the present!
Click here to get that all taken care of.

MARCH 19th
DISCOUNTED HOTEL RATES

Discounted rates at the JW Marriott Chicago are available until Tuesday, March 19th – room and rate availability cannot be guaranteed after that date. Conference attendees staying at the conference hotel receive a great rate and are perfectly positioned in the center of the conference activities AND this year, attendees booked in the hotel are entered in a drawing to win some pretty great prizes.

You have to be present to win, but you have a chance to take one of these ten prizes home with you:
Diamond Prize (1 available): Three night free stay at the JW (over a $700 value)
Platinum Prize (2 available): One night free stay at the JW (over a $200 value)
Gold Prize (2 available): $100 off a 2013 ISA course offering
Silver Prize (3 available): $100 off 2014 membership dues
Bronze Prize (2 available): Complete sets of ISA course manuals (a $200 value)

So you can click here to get that all taken care of as well!

We'll work on the weather situation and you take care of scratching those off your To-Do lists.
Deal?

We'll see you in a few short weeks!