Rug and Textile Appreciation Morning: Introducing the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection
Lyssa Stapleton and Marie-Eve Celio introduce the orgins of the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection, now housed at the museum.
About the Collection
The Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection represents a lifetime of collecting by business leader and philanthropist Lloyd Cotsen (1929–2017) and is one of the world’s most significant textile study collections ever assembled. The nearly 4,000 fragments offer insights into human creativity around the world and from antiquity to the present. Cornerstones of the collection include fragments from Japan, China, pre-Columbian Peru, and 16th-to 18th-century Europe.
About the Presenters
Dr. Lyssa C. Stapleton is the consulting curator for the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection and has been curator of the Cotsen Textile Collection for more than 20 years. Stapleton has organized many exhibitions focusing on textiles and basketry, including The Box Project: Uncommon Threads and Bamboo at Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles. She holds a doctorate in archaeology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr. Marie-Eve Celio started as academic coordinator for the museum’s new Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center in 2019, a position endowed by Margit Sperling Cotsen. Celio has experience working as a curator (Rietberg Museum in Zurich) and teaching (University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland). She also spent eight years in India consulting on projects for UNESCO and developing international collaborations between institutions. She holds a doctorate, summa cum laude, in history of art from the Sorbonne in Paris, France, and a master’s degree from the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
How to Participate
You can register for this program online. Space is limited, so we encourage you to sign up early. After you register, we will email you a link and instructions for joining our program online via Zoom. Simply follow that link at the time the event starts (11 a.m. EDT). When you register, you can also ask to receive a reminder email one day before the program with the link included.
About Rug and Textile Appreciation Mornings
Collectors and experts discuss textile topics and display examples from their personal holdings. You are invited to submit related pieces to share during the program. This series is named in honor of late Textile Museum trustee emeritus, Harold M. Keshishian. Browse upcoming programs