"Art Within Reach" with Art Historian Ezra Shales

Ezra Shales's recent book, "Pitchers of American Life: Art Within Reach" (Bloomsbury 2026) discusses the value of a collective tool in our individualistic age. Might the vessels preserved from ancient indigenous American cultures, those caught in the spiderwebs of antique shops, and common tools used for drinks lurking in modern kitchens comprise an alternative history of art? And might our cupboards make the idea of art accessible and pleasantly tactile?

The presentation will include 'show-and-touch' engagement with a selection from mass-produced goods. How does a design once on display at the London Crystal Palace in 1851 compare to one from our Plasticene era?

Professor in the History of Art department at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Ezra Shales, Ph.D., is the author of "The Shape of Craft" (Reaktion, 2017) and "Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic Identity in the Progressive Era" (Rutgers University Press, 2010). He has contributed to exhibition catalogs for artists Polly Apfelbaum, Neil Brownsword, Kim Dickey, Shari Mendelson, and Dan Walsh and published in the Journal of Modern Craft and Journal of Design History.

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