Philip Zea Wins 2009

ADA Award Of Merit

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Philip Zea, winner of the 2009 ADA Award, will be honored at a dinner on April 18 during the run of the Philadelphia Antiques Show. —Antiques and The Arts Weekly photo, R. Scudder Smith

ADA AWARD OF MERIT WINNER PHILIP ZEA RS

DEERFIELD, MASS. — Philip Zea, president of Historic Deerfield, always looks forward to the annual ADA Historic Deerfield Antiques Show, and this year it was extra special for him. It was announced on Sunday to the ADA members doing the show that Philip Zea was the winner of the organization’s Award of Merit that is presented annually during the run of the Philadelphia Antiques Show.

“I was surprised and honored,” Philip Zea said, “as I have always had great respect for the antiques dealers and the fund of knowledge they bring to us who celebrate America’s past.”

He came to Historic Deerfield in 1981 as an assistant curator, having spent a couple of years at Old Sturbridge Village and three years at The New Hampshire Historical Society. He moved up in the ranks at Deerfield, becoming Deputy Director in 1997. He became curator of furniture at Williamsburg in 1999, followed by vice president of museum collections at SPNEA. In 2003 he returned to Historic Deerfield as president where he has continued to build its collections and was instrumental in bringing the ADA Antiques Show to Deerfield.

John Keith Russell, president of the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America, said “Philip is more than deserving of this award for he has the respect and admiration of the antiques business.” In making the announcement to the ADA members at the meeting on October 12, John said “the membership was thrilled with the choice of the Board of Directors, and we are all looking forward to a wonderful evening on Saturday, April 18.”

Arthur Liverant, a longtime member of the ADA Board of Directors, called Philip Zea “a steady leader in the museum world who has strong ties with both the antiques dealers and the museum people. He is doing great things in the American decorative arts field and he is doing a terrific job at Historic Deerfield.”

For more information about the dinner and the award, visit www.adadealers.com or write to ADA, Box 529, Newtown CT 06470.

   —R. Scudder Smith