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<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'>Dear colleagues,</span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'>Please
allow me to share with you information about a new exhibition and online
catalogue project relating to ceramics in Mainland Southeast Asia. </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'> </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'>The
exhibition “Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia” opened at the
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., on 1 April 2007. It will be on view through 2010 and can also be enjoyed on our web
site, <a href="http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/TakingShape.htm"><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/TakingShape.htm</span></b></a>.</span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'> </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'>The
exhibition presents 200 diverse and visually striking pots, jars, bottles and
bowls from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), and southern
China, within a narrative that focuses on the interplay of earthenware and
stoneware ceramics within the region, the cross-fertilization of ideas about
ceramic use, form, glaze, and decoration, and the dispersal of ceramics through
local, regional, and international trade. </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'> </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'>Mainland
Southeast Asia is one of the few areas of the world hosting parallel traditions
of both earthenware and stoneware technologies. The exhibition includes a short
video showing earthenware and stoneware production processes (also viewable
online) and samples of earthenware cooking pots and stoneware mortars to
handle. </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'> </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'>“Taking
Shape” draws on a group of nearly 800 ceramics donated to the Sackler by
brothers Osborne and Victor Hauge and their wives Gratia and Takako. The Hauges
collected types of pottery that few other collectors paid attention to, such as
cooking pots from the central highlands of Vietnam and storage jars from Laos and Thailand. Many were types of wares that had not yet been identified when the Hauges found
them in the 1960s and early 1970s. The collection’s incomparable variety
and depth will allow the museum to chart new territory in public programs and
scholarly projects.</span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'> </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'>One project
currently in preparation is an innovative Web-based catalogue of the Hauge
collection and related materials in the adjacent Freer Gallery of Art. The
dynamic and interactive site will invite user commentary and will grow and
evolve as new discoveries and research are incorporated. The site will make
information on the museum’s Southeast Asian ceramics available around the
world as at the same time as it solicits information “from the field”
and becomes, we hope, a sort of gathering place for people interested in the
varied dimensions of meaning of ceramics in Mainland Southeast Asia. We hope it
will serve as a resource for teaching. The site will include a steadily-growing
library of specially-commissioned essays, translations of key texts from Japanese,
Thai, and other languages, and reprints of hard-to-find publications. It will
also offer a extensive bibliography. </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'> </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'>The
Web-based catalogue will launch in late spring. We will celebrate the launch
with a lecture presented by Australian archaeologist Don Hein concerning his long-term
work on the Sawankhalok kiln complex in north-central Thailand. The lecture will take place at the Freer Gallery on Sunday 1 June at 2 PM. Details
will be forthcoming. </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'> </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'>The
full collection may be studied by advance appointment. Please contact Louise
Cort, Curator for Ceramics, <a href="mailto:cortlo@si.edu"><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>cortlo@si.edu</span></b></a>.</span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'> </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'>The Arthur
M. Sackler Gallery, located at 1050 Independence Ave. S.W., is on the National
Mall in Washington, D.C.. Hours for the Sackler and the adjacent Freer Gallery
of Art are from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day, except Dec. 25, and admission
is free. The galleries are located near the Smithsonian Metrorail station on
the Blue and Orange lines. </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><b><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:normal'> </span></font></b></p>
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