Avant-Garde in the Cornfields: Architecture, Landscape, and Preservation in New Harmony
Date/Time
May 2, 2023
6 pm-7:30pm
Location
Dudley Recital Hall, Fine Arts Building, University of Houston
FREE and open to the public
Image Caption:
Roofless Church, New Harmony
Image courtesy: G.D. Kidder Smith Archive, I.A.U.V. University Venice
Description
Jane Blaffer Owen’s Architectural and Art Philanthropy
New Book Presentation: Avant-Garde in the Cornfields: Architecture, Landscape, and Preservation in New Harmony
Books will be on sale Basket Books & Art
Co-presented by Blaffer Art Museum, Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts, University of Houston, Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design at the University of Houston, Houston Mod, and Preservation Houston
The small town of New Harmony, Indiana was an important site of Jane Blaffer Owen’s architectural, art, and cultural philanthropy outside of Houston. A new book, Avant-Garde in the Cornfields: Architecture, Landscape, and Preservation in New Harmony (co-edited by Ben Nicholson and Michelangelo Sabatino) provides insight into the architecture, landscape, and preservation of a singular town in the U.S. Midwest. New Harmony is renowned as the site of two successive Utopian settlements during the nineteenth century: the Harmonists and the Owenites. An important reappraisal of postwar American architecture from a rural perspective, the book raises provocative questions about how history is interpreted through design and historic preservation.
Co-Sponsors:
Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston
Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design
Preservation Houston
Houston Mod
Program:
Introduction, Steven Matijcio, Jane Dale Owen Director and Chief Curator, Blaffer Art Museum.
Presenters:
Stephen Fox, Nancy Mangum McCaslin, Michelangelo Sabatino, Joe Meppelink
About the Presenters:
Stephen Fox is an architectural historian and a Fellow of the Anchorage Foundation of Texas. He is a lecturer in architecture at the University of Houston and Rice University. Fox is the author of The Architecture of Birdsall P. Briscoe, The Country Houses of John F. Staub, and AIA Houston Architectural Guide.
Nancy Mangum McCaslin is a freelance writer and developmental editor for university presses and commercial publishers. She worked with Jane Blaffer Owen, who was writing New Harmony, Indiana Like a River, Not a Lake: A Memoir (University of Indiana Press, 2015) which was published posthumously. Mangum McCaslin divides her time between Texas and New Harmony, where she is actively involved with the University of Southern Indiana’s Historic New Harmony and the Robert Lee Blaffer Foundation.
Michelangelo Sabatino is an architectural historian, curator, and preservationist whose research and writing focuses primarily on modern architecture and the built environment. He is Professor of Architectural History and Preservation at IIT’s College of Architecture where he directs the PhD program and is the inaugural John Vinci Distinguished Research Fellow.
Joe Meppelink is Principal at Metalab, a multi-disciplinary design practice specializing in Architecture, Public Art Project Management and Creative Infrastructure. He with his business partner, Andrew Vrana, led a series of courses at UHCoA with Visiting Critic, Ben Nicholson, to investigate Frederick Kiesler’s Grotto for Meditation. With the support of Jane Blaffer Owen, they authored a contemporary interpretation of the Grotto on the UH campus.
Parking/Visitor Info
Free parking for this event is available via the six complimentary marked lot spots directly in front of the museum entrance and at the Elgin Street Garage parking (4224 Elgin Street). To take advantage of complimentary Elgin Street Garage parking, please first park in the garage, obtain your machine ticket, and bring the museum front desk upon arrival.