Keisuke Sugiyama and F|S conservator Jiro Ueda. Photo by Stacy Bowe.

Research

When Charles Lang Freer set out to donate his collections and establish a museum in the nation's capital, he stipulated that research must be an integral part of its mission. Over the past year we have done our best to fulfill Freer’s vision of his museum as a research institution. Nine scholars from around the world have been in residence as research fellows, and we have welcomed very many short-term researchers who wished to consult our library, archives, or collections.

In the 2010–11 academic year, we hosted no less than six major conferences and workshops, each highlighting a different aspect of research which grows out of the F|S collections. These included the fifth Forbes Symposium, focused on studies of ancient Asian metallurgy; an international workshop on Southeast Asian ceramic archaeology, co-organized by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology; and Art and Material Culture of the Northern Qi, organized in collaboration with the University of Chicago.

In the coming academic year, we expect a slightly more measured pace for conferences, but we are hosting three major international symposia: Palaces of Art: Whistler and the Art Worlds of Aestheticism (October 2011); Imperial Exposure: Early Photography and Royal Portraits Across Asia (December 2011); and The Artist in Edo, in collaboration with the Center for the Advanced Study of the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art (April 2012). Information about each symposium is currently or will soon be posted on our website.

The research that underlies our exhibitions and is presented in scholarly conferences generally takes place behind the scenes. Over the past few months we have had the great opportunity to work with a group of interns and fellows that has helped advance a variety of our research projects. Highlights of their summer with us are presented below.

We look forward to seeing you at our lectures and conferences or to welcoming you as a researcher. I hope that you will visit our website often to see where our research is taking us.

Nancy Micklewright
Head, Scholarly Programs and Publications

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