Gervers Lecture looks at colourful textiles and fashion created from 1780 – 1880
FREE event takes place on Tuesday, October 28th from 7:00 pm
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is pleased to present Philip Sykas addressing Promiscuous Prints, the Annual Veronika Gervers Memorial Lecture. Taking place in the ROM’s Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre on Tuesday, October 28 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm, the FREE lecture is open to the public and includes a Q&A with the lecturer.
In this year’s lecture, Dr. Philip Sykas of Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) looks at the market for British printed garment textiles. The public’s desire of these furnishings grew in conjunction with radical technological and design changes that took place during the period of 1780 to 1880. The creation of these glorious textiles and fashion transformed bland interiors and dreary streets with new, dazzling colours and patterns. This project brings Dr. Sykas’ extensive experience with manufacturers' pattern books and the technological evolution of calico printing to the study of fashions at the ROM.
Dr. Sykas worked as a textile conservator and a museum curator before embarking on full-time research at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1994. His research focuses on textile printing in England, especially the interconnections between pattern design, technology and merchanting. Detailed analysis of visual evidence from manufacturers' pattern books has been a feature of Sykas’ work from the start. Alongside contemporary documents, and surviving printed garments, the pattern evidence helps tell the story of the response of design to developments in technology, and the changing needs of a complex international trade.
The Eaton Theatre is on the ROM’s Level 1B. Doors open at 6:30 pm and attendees should enter via the President’s Choice School Entrance, located at the Museum’s south end.
Pre-registration is required for this free lecture at https://www.rom.on.ca/en/activities-programs/. American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation is available for all ROM lectures with at least three weeks advance notice. Email programs@rom.on.ca to enquire about this service.
This event is presented by the Veronika Gervers Research Fellowship. The Veronika Gervers Research Fellowship, supported by a memorial fund established in 1979 to commemorate the noted ROM curator and textile scholar, promotes research incorporating the textile and costume collections of the ROM. The Fellowship is open to Ph.D. candidates and scholars worldwide whose research can make direct use of, or support, any part of the Museum’s collections. Successful Gervers candidates are selected by a committee of both museum and university scholars. ROM curator Dr. Alexandra Palmer, herself a former Gervers Fellow, chairs the committee.