Gallery Crawl

The Missouri Historic Costume and Textile Collection recently participated in a campus-wide gallery crawl at the University of Missouri. We featured costumes, textiles and accessories of the Roaring 1920s, complete with ragtime and jazz accents in the Art Deco style of the era.

Me (on left) and Nicole Johnston-Blatz, Collections Manager

In addition to the Missouri Historical Costume and Textile Collection, seven other museums participated in the Gallery Crawl: The Museum of Art and Archaeology, The State Historical Society of Missouri, The Museum of Anthropology, The George Caleb Bingham Gallery, The Residence on Francis Quadrangle, Laws Observatory, and The MU Craft Studio Gallery.

Beautifully embroidered shawls from the 1920s

Gowns from the 1920s displayed in our new exhibit case

The Gallery Crawl visitors were given a postcard with a map of all eight galleries. Each gallery stamped their postcards when they arrived, if the visitors got stamps from all eight galleries, they could submit the postcard for a drawing. Each gallery provided a prize for the drawing, we provided a Mizzou Plaid fleece blanket. The Mizzou Plaid was designed by a student of the Textile and Apparel Management department. Other prizes provided included gift cards, hand-thrown pottery, and hand-blown glass vases.

The lovely refreshment display

Dr. Wilson, Collection Curator (on right)

We had over 300 visitors at our gallery. Nicole and I were stationed to stamp the postcards and I was given the responsibility to count people as they entered our gallery. We had wonderfully positive feedback regarding our 1920s display. Who doesn't love beautifully beaded gowns? And with the lovely silhouette of the 1920s, they are truly amazing works of art. We even had a Fortuny gown on display, a real treasure!

For more information about the Gallery Crawl, read this article by the Missourian.