Join us online for our 3rd Annual CSDA/CCAD Auction Fundraiser
September 30 — October 05, 2023


In partnership with Waddington’s, the Canadian Society of Decorative Arts presents our 3rd Annual Auction Fundraiser in support of CSDA/CCAD programming and our award-winning magazine, Ornamentum. This year’s auction includes a wide variety of beautiful objects, including fine jewelry, glass, ceramics, Japanese woodblock prints, engravings, Indigenous art, and books.

View the auction items.

CSDA/CCAD Sundays: The Expert Series - October 15, 2023 - 3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Judaica by Silversmith, Robert Hendery, ca. 1860-1890

Robert Hendery (1814-1897), of Montreal, ranks as Canada's foremost silversmith of the late 19th century. He supplied retailers across Canada with honorific, domestic and cultic wares. The latter include liturgical objects for both Catholic and Anglican churches. Hendery also made silver for Montreal's nascent Jewish community. This presentation will explore Hendery's Judaica, its forms, design sources, and patronage for the first time. Pieces range from the prosaic to innovational, while remaining within the confines of traditionalist conventions. Some incorporate maple leaves and even beavers, with the aim to canadianize. For the most part they reflect Hendery's employment of designers from Europe, including
his son-in-law, Felix Louis Paris. This silver speaks eloquently of the culture, spirituality, and achievement of its patrons. 

Ross Fox is an art historian and decorative arts specialist who has served on the curatorial staffs of museums in Canada and the United States. He retired from the Royal Ontario Museum in 2011, where for ten years he was the curator responsible for Early Canadian Decorative Arts. Over the subsequent decade he continued at the ROM as a Research Associate. He is also an Assistant Professor (Sessional Instructor) in the Department of Art History, University of Toronto, where he teaches a course in furniture history. He also consults for museums and other cultural entities, i.e., the Canadiana Fund Committee, National Capital Commission, Ottawa. Fox has a PhD in Art History and Archaeology (University of Missouri).

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Stephen Braithwaite, Strathcona's Folly, Ottawa, 1992. Photo: Alex Smith 

Donna Hiebert, The Wave, Halifax 1988. Photo: Alex Smith

Ornamentum Lecture - Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Where do the Children Play?  

Where do the children play?  This question will be addressed by play expert Alex Smith as he takes us on a curated tour of Canadian play spaces, past and present, with a smattering of contrasting international examples.  Photos and video will illustrate different approaches and design elements that get kids coming back for more.  Whether it’s public art, minimalist landscapes, child-led temporary creations or vernacular builds, each space offers seemingly endless moments of joy through the simple medium of play.  

Participants will have the opportunity to consider the relation of play spaces within the broader urban design and planning context as we ask ourselves:  Do our public spaces give children their due? 

Date: Thursday, October 26, 2023

Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm (EST)

Register on Eventbrite HERE 

Donations are welcome to help offset costs. Tax receipts will be issued for donations of $20 or more. Registration fees include small administration fee from Eventbrite and are non-refundable.

BIOGRAPHY 

Alex Smith is the founder/editor of the award-winning blog, PlayGroundology. For nearly 15 years he has been publishing stories for international audiences featuring play theorists and practitioners, designers, artists, academics and kids from Canada and countries around the world.  Alex’s rediscovery of play was inspired by his three youngest children’s very active pursuit of fun and adventure. Together, they gamboled through playgrounds in Halifax, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and points between. The backyard of their Nova Scotia home became an ever-changing neighbourhood play zone. 

In the process, Alex became an advocate for children’s right to play, organizing a variety of public events, appearing in regional and national media, and volunteering with the Canadian chapter of the International Play Association (IPA). The father of five and grandfather of two, he is a firm believer in the transformative power of play. 

This lecture is sponsored in part by: 

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