Special Events – 2016 ASA Personal Property Annual Connoisseurship Conference

Vancouver, British Columbia, offers a unique multi-cultural backdrop for ASA’s 2016 Personal Property Conference, The Sacred and the Profane. Conference attendees will explore sacred and profane traditions across the spectrum of artistic cultures with well-known scholars, appraisers, authors, and other experts during the day, and experience First Nations People’s cultural history in the evenings.

Here are some of the highlights:

WELCOME RECEPTION, BILL REID GALLERY, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9
Across the street from The Fairmont Hotel in downtown Vancouver is the largest assemblage of Haida artist Bill Reid’s craftsmanship. You’ll spot this internationally renowned Northwest Coast artist’s iconic imagery in the sculpture The Jade Canoe when you land at Vancouver International Airport, and later at the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology. His work can also be seen at the Vancouver Aquarium, the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC, and on the back of the Canadian twenty-dollar bill.

Reconnect with your colleagues over specially selected Canadian wines and appetizers, join our dedicated docent guide, or stroll among totem poles, masks, and sculptures representing the finest of Northwest Coast Aboriginal Art. This is a wonderful opportunity at the beginning of The Sacred and the Profane conference to enjoy the iconography and symbolism of ravens, thunderbirds, orcas, wolves and air spirits of the Haida Nation’s sacred world.

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY, THURSDAY, MARCH 10
Transportation is provided to the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, where you’ll stroll around the partial reconstruction of a Haida Village, the longhouse and its towering totem poles, salvaged and preserved with the assistance of Bill Reid. Enjoy private, after-hours tours of the museum’s collections and see artifacts from around the world, including the Koerner Gallery’s collection of rare ceramics and one of the richest collections of First Nations People arts and artifacts in North America.

VANCOUVER ART GALLERY, FRIDAY, MARCH 11
An easy walk from the Fairmont Hotel, the Vancouver Art Gallery offers another opportunity for private, docent-led guided tours of its current exhibition, MashUp: The Birth of Modern Culture. Four floors of “mashup” strategies across media from 1912 to the present, this explosion of creative contemporary artistic genius is the museum’s biggest exhibition yet.

SACRED CLOSING CEREMONIES
The Sacred and Profane conference concludes at our luncheon on Saturday March 12, 2016 at The Fairmont Hotel with a performance by Spakwus Slolem, translated as the “Eagle Song Dancers.” The Eagle Song Dancers are members of the ancient Squamish Nation, which has lived in the lower mainland of British Columbia for over 10,000 years. Their songs feature the beautifully carved masks that honor the spiritual powers of the animal kingdom. The leader of the group is Bob Baker, who has been active with his people’s heritage his entire life.

The Sacred and Profane conference promises to be one of the most curiously unique, fun and educational conferences that ASA/PP has ever presented. Come, join your peers, and pique your curiosity.

For more information or to register, visit ASA Online.