Fenimore Art Museum Presents Live Zoom Lecture on the Legacy of Early 19th-century African-American potter Thomas W. Commeraw
Lecture tells the story of one of the most important early 19th-century African-American craftsmen, Thomas W. Commeraw–an abolitionist and activist in post-Revolutionary New York
Lecture celebrates the museum’s current exhibition, Crafting Freedom: The Life and Legacy of Free Black Potter Thomas W. Commeraw, on view through September 24.
Live Zoom Lecture:
The Life & Legacy of Thomas W. Commeraw – with author Brandt Zipp
Wednesday, July 5 • 7:00 p.m.
Registration is free, with a suggested donation of $10.
Cooperstown, New York —On July 5 at 7:00 p.m., Fenimore Art Museum hosts a special live Zoom presentation by author Brandt Zipp, discussing the life and work of early 19th-century African-American potter Thomas W. Commeraw (c. 1772–1823). Registrationis free, with a suggested donation of $10.
Through an illuminating tour of period documents and numerous examples of stoneware produced from the late 1790s through 1819, this live Zoom presentation tells the story of one of the most important early African-American craftsmen, Thomas W. Commeraw–an abolitionist, activist and, ultimately, hopeful founder of a new African republic. This lecture celebrates the museum’s current exhibition, Crafting Freedom: The Life and Legacy of Free Black Potter Thomas W. Commeraw, on view through September 24.
Brandt Zipp is the author of Commeraw’s Stoneware: The Life and Work of the First African-American Pottery Owner, the culmination of nearly two decades of researching Thomas W. Commeraw. It was Brandt’s own serendipitous discovery of Commeraw’s heritage in 2003 that brought this story to the modern world. Brandt is a founding partner of Crocker Farm, Inc., a research-focused auction house specializing in historic American utilitarian ceramics.
Registration for this Zoom lecture is free, with a suggested donation of $10. Find more information and register here.
About Fenimore Art Museum
Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake—James Fenimore Cooper’s “Glimmerglass”—in historic Cooperstown, New York, features a wide-ranging collection of American art including folk art; important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre, and portrait paintings; more than 125,000 historic photographs representing the technical developments made in photography and providing extensive visual documentation of the region’s unique history; and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art comprised of nearly 900 art objects representative of a broad geographic range of North American Indian cultures, from the Northwest Coast, Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Great Lakes, and Prairie regions. Visit FenimoreArt.org.
