The Smithsonian Institution/Society of Decorative Painters Ornament Project 2009

Please note:
There are no more ornaments available.

The Smithsonian Institution/Society of Decorative Painters Ornament Project is a unique initiative in which decorative artists of today will reinterpret classic American artwork from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This thrilling opportunity is available only to members of the Society.

About the project

This project, in which SDP is participating at the invitation of the Smithsonian, is designed to complement a new installation of seventy landscapes, portraits, and allegorical works by fifty-one American artists from the 1840s to the 1930s that is currently hanging in the Grand Salon of the Renwick Gallery. SDP members are invited to participate by painting ornaments reinterpreting the works on view. Five hundred of these ornaments will be selected to decorate the holiday tree adorning the Grand Salon during the 2009/10 holiday season. Exact dates will be announced.

About the exhibition

Since 1972, the Renwick Gallery—a Second Empire-style building and National Historic Landmark located only steps from the White House—has been home to the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s craft and decorative arts program. The above-described works hanging in the Renwick’s Grand Salon comprise paintings from the Renwick’s permanent collection by such major American artists as Edward Mitchell Bannister, Romaine Brooks, Elliott Daingerfield, Daniel Garber, William Morris Hunt, George Inness, Homer Dodge Martin, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Abbott Handerson Thayer, John Henry Twachtman, and Irving R. Wiles, many of which have not been on public view in many years. The exhibition is installed salon-style, with paintings hung one-atop-another and side-by-side. It opened June 6, 2009, with no scheduled closing date.

To participate

Any SDP member in good standing is invited to participate in the ornament project. International members are welcome. Completed ornaments must be received no later than October 1, 2009 to qualify for participation.

You must use the official surface that is included in the ornament packet

The object of this project is to create present-day, decorative art reinterpretations of the paintings featured in the Renwick Gallery’s Grand Salon exhibition. Although the subject of the artwork is at the discretion of the artist, note that the artist must use one of the seventy paintings featured in the Renwick installation as the inspiration for their ornament. Artists may choose any one of the paintings, and they make work from a detail of the original artwork, a figure or passage featured within it, or the painting as a whole. Artists may work in any medium, and are free to sign their work. To view the seventy works in the Renwick Gallery, visit flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/sets/72157618150411546/

Of the completed ornaments received by October 1, 2009, five hundred will be chosen by a panel comprising SDP and Smithsonian staff for inclusion on the holiday tree in the Renwick Gallery’s Grand Salon. Remaining ornaments will be displayed on the holiday tree on view at SDP Headquarters in Wichita, Kan. Please note that no ornaments can be returned, and that submitted ornaments become the property of SDP and the Smithsonian Institution.

Details  

The cost of official program surfaces is $5 each. (An additional $3 will be charged will be added for each ornament shipped to participants.)

If ordering from outside the U.S., please call Sony Sacks at
(316) 269-9300, ext. 105,
for shipping rates and to place your order.

Finished ornaments may be designed to hang vertically or horizontally. Hangers are provided for ornaments once they are received, but please note that participants are required to drill a hole to accommodate an ornament hanger, depending on the orientation of their finished work. This hole should measure 1/8” (3mm) in diameter; it must be centered on the ornament and placed 1/2” (12.7mm) from the edge. Please sand and seal the ornament before painting it, and varnish it when complete. Please ensure that it is completely dry before shipping. Participants may add a border if they wish.

Download mail in registration form.

Finished ornaments should be placed back in the envelope in which they were received and shipped to:

Mary Dunlap
952 Morgan Grove Rd.
Shepherdstown, WV 25443

Ornaments must be received no later than October 1, 2009
to qualify for this program.       

More information

Please direct questions to Tammy Browning-Smith at (440) 398-0098 or tammy@browning-smith.com; or Mary Dunlap at (304) 876-2359 or marydunlap819@comcast.net.

For more information on the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, visit http://americanart.si.edu/renwick/

Please do not contact the Smithsonian Institution
or the Renwick Gallery directly.