NEW ORLEANS (press release) – The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC) is pleased to announce that its ever-popular New Orleans Antiques Forum will return as a virtual event on Friday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 8. Last year’s Forum was postponed as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As with the traditional in-person event, the 2021 New Orleans Antiques Forum will feature a distinguished panel of national and local experts—all in a convenient virtual format.
Today we live in a world of rapid change and endless self-documentation, where smartphones and social media allow people to document their lives. However, there was a time when the recording of life’s events held a deeper significance—when cherished physical items served as a connective fabric between the past and the future. With the theme, “A Special Place in Time: Preserving Memories through Southern Decorative Arts,” this year’s program will examine that time and the many ways in which people chronicled their personal histories through silver, ceramics, engravings, furniture, textiles, and more.
The 2021 forum will feature pre-recorded sessions, which participants can view on their own schedules, and a live Happy Hour Q&A each day at 5 p.m. (CDT) featuring the day’s presenters, moderator Tom Savage and the event’s community of antiques collectors, dealers and enthusiasts—celebrating the many different vessels of memory that give shape to human life.
This year’s panel of speakers includes Lydia Blackmore, Sarah Duggan, and John H. Lawrence, of The Historic New Orleans Collection. Joining them will be the following esteemed experts: Daniel Kurt Ackermann, chief curator and director of collections, research, and archaeology at Old Salem Museums and Gardens and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts; Hannah Boettcher, manager of special programs at the Museum of the American Revolution; Mark Ferguson, founding partner of Ferguson and Shamamian Architects; Ron Fuchs II, senior curator of the Reeves Museum of Ceramics at Washington and Lee University; Christopher W. Lane, owner of The Philadelphia Print Shop West and Antiques Roadshow expert; Tom Savage, director of educational travel and conferences for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; Emily Stoehrer, the Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan Curator of Jewelry at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Beth Carver Wees, curator emerita of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Established by THNOC in 2008 to boost cultural tourism in New Orleans and south Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, this year marks the 13th installment of the event. Sessions are accessible to experienced collectors as well as beginning antiques enthusiasts and are designed to encourage the appreciation of decorative arts created in and imported through the Gulf Coast. This year’s forum was made possible by generous support from the Neal Auction Company, the Decorative Arts Trust, Hederman Brothers, and the Hotel Monteleone.
Registration is open and admission is on a pay-what-you-can model starting at $20 per person. To register or for additional information, visit hnoc.org/antiques. For personal assistance, email events@hnoc.org or call (504) 598-7146 to speak with members of THNOC’s Events and Ticketing team.