Emery Blagdon with his Healing Machine. Photo by Sally and Richard Greenhill.

The built environments of vernacular artists provide the basis for this international conference to the study, preservation, collecting, presentation, and understanding of artistic oeuvres initially envisioned by the maker as a comprehensive whole. Presenters, panelists, and moderators— a combination of scholars, curators, gallery owners, collectors, activists, preservationists, artists, and teachers— will thoroughly engage you as they lead you on an illuminating journey!

Hosts

Ruth DeYoung Kohler, Director, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, WI
Terri Yoho, Executive Director, Kohler Foundation, Inc., WI

Presenters and Panelists

Shari Cavin, Co-owner/Co-director, Cavin/Morris Gallery, NY
Don Christenson, Collector/Preservationist, NY
Wayne Cox, Collector/Independent Researcher, Jamaica
Erika Doss, Chair, Department of American STudies, University of Notre Dame, IN
Henry Drewal, Professor, Departments of Art History and Afro-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI
Dan Dryden, collector/Preservationist, NY
Beverly Gordon, School of Human Ecology, Univesity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI
Jo Farb Hernández, Professor, San Jose State University and Director, SPACES, CA
Iain Jackson, Professor, School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, England
Phyllis Kind, Director, Phyllis Kind Gallery, NY
Sarah Lombardi, Curator and Writer, Collection de l' Art Brut and Independent Researcher Societé des Arts Indisciplines, Switzerland
Tom Patterson, Independent Writer, Editor, Critic, and Curator, NC
Molly Ross, Artist and Professor, Maryland Institute College of ART, MD
Valérie Rousseau, Director of Societé des Arts Indisciplines, Canada
Daniel Franklin Ward, Director, Folk Arts Program of the Cultural Resources Council, NY

Moderators

Randall Morris, Independent Scholar, Co-owner/Co-director, Cavin/Morris Gallery, NY
Lisa Stone, Curator, Roger Brown Study Collection, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Leslie Umberger, Senior Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, WI

Participants

Brooke Davis Anderson, Director/Curator of The Contemporary Center, American Folk Art Museum, NY
Robert McCullough, Collector/Preservationist, OR
Charles Russell, Trustee, Waitzkin Memorial Library Trust, NY and Director of American Studies, Rutgers University, NJ
Charles Smith, Artist, LA and IL
Gregory Van Maanen, Artist, NJ and NY