Symposium 2007

TOWN AND COUNTRY STYLE
The Costume Society Symposium in the North East
Fri 21 - Sun 23 September 2007

This symposium provides the opportunity to compare and contrast Town and Country Style and attitudes towards dress for these very different locations over several centuries. Based in the cosmopolitan city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne with excursions to the countryside for sessions held in the magnificent newly-built storage and collections study facilities at the Beamish North of England Open Air Museum and at the exquisite French-chateau style Bowes Museum.

Symposium sessions on Saturday will be at The Assembly Rooms, a grand Georgian building, set in the heart of Newcastle city centre. That afternoon, at the invitation of Caroline Whitehead, Keeper of History, Tyne & Wear Museums, we visit Discovery Museum in Newcastle which houses the finest collections of scientific and technical material outside London and keeps important collections of costume.

On Sunday, the Symposium continues at Beamish Open Air Museum, at the invitation of Christine Stevens, Head of Collections. Beamish, set in over 300 acres of beautiful countryside, vividly recreates life in the North of England in the early 1800s and 1900s. Beamish is not a traditional museum. Most of the houses, shops and other buildings have been "deconstructed" from elsewhere in the region and rebuilt there. Staff dress in costume of the period and the museum has numerous examples of contemporary textiles, including quilting and ragrugs.

For those who are able to optional additional day, Joanna Hashagen, Keeper of Textiles at Bowes Museum, will host a collections-based day on Friday 21 September.

To download a booking form click the postal form on the top right hand side of this page.

John Bowes

Josephine Bowes