ICOM International Committee for Museums and Collections of Decorative Arts and Design
Annual Conference
Dwelling, Design, and the Decorative Arts
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, United States
Conference: November 19-21, 2024
Post-conference tour: November 22-23, 2024
The Peabody Essex Museum, in Salem, Massachusetts, is the oldest continually operating
museum in the United States, founded in 1799. And so it is fitting that it is also the first museum
to install period rooms within its galleries as well as being an early leader in the preservation ofhistoric houses. This commitment to “rooms” reflects a longstanding preoccupation with thedomestic sphere in the world of decorative arts and design. Many of the decorative objects foundin museums today were originally made for use in the home and by families, and so theirinterpretation and study must grapple with the domestic in a myriad of ways.
How do domestic objects reflect the values and mores of their time? How do they declare or
hide their production histories? How do homes function as constructed spaces, and how do
museums reconstruct them or, as is sometimes the case, create imagined interiors? Questions
around gender, comfort, emotion, taste, function, politics, nationhood, technology are just a few
of the topics that emerge when considering the decorative arts of the home.
This conference explores domesticity and the home through decorative arts and design, and we
invite papers that interpret all these terms (domestic, home, decorative arts, design) from a
broad perspective. The town of Salem and the Peabody Essex Museum itself have numerous
homes dating from the seventeenth through early nineteenth centuries; however, thisconference also welcomes papers that explore the domestic sphere both before and after theheyday of Salem’s historic architecture. In addition, explorations of non-traditional domestic
spaces and their objects (ships, trains, institutional homes) are equally welcome, as we areinterested in the “production of home” through objects in unexpected places.
Why Salem?
Salem is a historic New England city that served as a hub of cultural exchange at thecrossroads of the early Atlantic World. An international port city, Salem was an eighteenth andnineteenth century center for global trade, art, furniture making and architecture. Today it ishome to a density of historic houses and examples of architecture from the seventeenth throughthe nineteenth centuries, including Yin Yu Tang, a reconstructed and relocated nineteenthcentury multigenerational merchant’s home from the Huizhou region of China. Salem is perhaps
most famous for the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and the city continues to explore and engage
with this troubling yet compelling history. Its location on the North Shore of Massachusetts
makes it a site of rich maritime history, and the city’s harbor provides both a dramatic backdropto the workings of this contemporary community and an important and ongoing area of historicresearch.
While Salem will serve as our home base for the conference, we will also explore sites ofhistoric and contemporary decorative arts and design throughout the region. The post
conference tour will take participants farther afield into broader New England. For attendees
coming from outside the United States, this conference represents a unique opportunity toengage with Boston and New England’s rich museum resources. Its location along the Easternseaboard also makes it convenient for further travel to major cities such as New York,
Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
How do I apply?
Send an abstract of 250–300 words and a short CV to ICDAD_Salem_2024@pem.org.
Proposals must be written in English, and participants will also be expected to give theirpresentations in English.
Presentations should be 15 minutes in length and include a visual presentation component(Powerpoint, Google Slides, etc.). Results of the conference may be published, and participants
will have the opportunity to participate in the publication should that occur.
The deadline to submit proposals is July 1, and applicants will be informed of the results by July
15.
Presenters will be expected to cover their own registration and travel expenses.Travel grants forjunior ICOM members (under 40 years old) are available.
Please note: ICDAD welcomes abstracts from museum professionals worldwide, members andnon-members. However, all participants must be individual members (voting or non-voting) orrepresentatives of institutional members of ICOM and ICDAD at the time of the conference.
Please check with your national committee of ICOM beforehand if you are eligible formembership.
Find more information about how to become a member of ICOM and ICDAD here:
https://icom.museum/en/get-involved/.
If you are already a member of ICOM, please log in to the IRIS memberspace and choose
ICDAD as your primary International Committee: https://icom-museum.force.com/login

Commenté [1]: @sarah_chasse@pem.org@melissarinne@yahoo.com@Eva.VanRegenmortel@stad.gent@anika.reineke@gmail.com hi all! Just realized that we
didn't set a due date for the proposals! Does this timing
make sense? Thanks!