Thanks to those who have posted notes about the announced closing of Sweet Briar College in Virginia.
The possible closing of Sweet Briar College not only endangers the Lace at Sweet Briar annual retreat, but the Connin-Barber lace collection at the Sweet Briar College Museum. When in 2003 I was asked to find a home for that unique collection the hope was not only to find a safe haven for the lace, where it would be properly stored, but a place where it would be kept together as a collection and would be available for study. Margaret Kyle Barbers granddaughter Jane Connin arranged for the collection to be extensively documented with digital images and descriptions to make it more useful for study. Having a strong group of lacemakers in the area to help protect that legacy was also part of the decision of where to place the collection. Clay Blackwell stepped up magnificently to start the annual Lace at Sweet Briar retreat for lacemakers, and pieces of lace from the collection have served as inspiration for lacemakers as well. If you have designed and made lace pieces inspired by pieces in the Connin-Barber collection at Sweet Briar College, please tell the Sweet Briar museum: Karol Lawson, email klaw...@sbc.edu. Please also email me email me at lacecura...@gmail.com. It is important to document the value of the Connin-Barber lace collection, and the importance of keeping it together and available for study. If the value is not documented, it is as if it never happened. Important lace collections do get lost. The lace collection of Dorothy Gerber was unceremoniously and very quietly dumped on the auction market by the Grand Rapids, Michigan art museum many years ago even though the pieces in the collection had been identified and valued and a very successful exhibit of that lace was staged, and very well attended and as well. It would be a terrible loss if something happened to the Connin-Barber collection at Sweet Briar. A summary of the 2003 lecture I gave at the International Old Lacers Inc. 2003 Convention (now the International Organization of Lace, Inc.) introducing the Connin-Barber collection and how it came to Sweet Briar is posted on my website, www.LaceCurator.info. Please read it, and pass it along to your friends who love lace. There is a group of Sweet Briar Alumnae working to save the college. I have sent them that article as well -- I hope to make them aware of all the loses that occur when a college closes, and hopefully give them just a bit more ammunition to help save the college. Please add what you can to this plea to save the lace collection as a study resource. I know lacemakers have drafted some patterns from the collection. I hope anyone who has been inspired by the lace collection and the lace retreats will send comments and perhaps pictures to the Sweet Briar museum and also to the Alum group. Elizabeth Kurella - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
