MUST RUN 11/16

CHINA STUDENTS’ CLUB LECTURE NOV. 29 WILL FOCUS ON ‘ART AND REFORM”

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BOSTON, MASS. — Nonie Gadsden, the Carolyn and Peter Lynch Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Art of the Americas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, will deliver an illustrated lecture at the China Students’ Club of Boston’s meeting on Thursday, November 29, at 1 pm, at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue.

Gadsden will speak on her recent exhibition, “Art and Reform: Sara Galner, the Saturday Evening Girls and the Paul Revere Pottery.” The Saturday Evening Girls Club (SEG) was one of many library reading groups developed in Boston’s North End by reform-minded local philanthropists to educate and assimilate immigrant girls and to keep them “off the streets.”

The Saturday Evening group included the oldest girls, many of whom had dropped out of school in order to contributed to her family’s income. The Paul Revere Pottery was established to offer these girls a safe environment in which to earn their wages, surrounded by their peers.

The SEGs, as they came to call themselves, decorated the pottery’s bowls, plates, vases and other forms with stylized imagery of animals, flowers, landscapes and other designs in earthy tones of blue, green, yellow and brown. The ceramics could be personalized with names, initials or moralistic mottos.

The China Students’ Club welcomes guests and potential new members. The lectures are free for members; nonmembers and guests will be charged $3 admission. For information, 413-775-7206 or www.chinastudentsclub.org.