In this Issue:

BEADS 2000 Tabled

Bead Museum to move?

Made in Africa a hit

Bead News Flash

No. 1

Reporter:

Pete Francis

BEADS 2000 (IV-IBC) Planning Tabled

Posted 27 April 1998, Lake Placid

The plans for BEADS 2000 (the 4th International Bead Conference or IV-IBC) has been tabled by the board of the Greater Washington Bead Society. The conference, entitled BEADS 2000: Taking Stock For The New Millennium, was to have taken place during the July 4 (Independence Day) weekend in the year 2000. The lack of sufficient volunteers for the massive undertaking and the inability to find suitable professional local management services were the reasons cited for the tabling of plans. IV-IBC may still be held in Washington at a later date, said Hilary Whittaker, president of the GWBS today. Below is the press release from the Society's board.

Because there is a great deal of interest in the idea of a fourth international Bead Conference that would serve the entire bead community in a "one-stop" manner in DC in AD 2000, your Board has spent tremendous time and effort in contacting and negotiations for a IV-IBC for the Millennium. We, however, have been unable to find either volunteer(s) willing to undertake the massive co-ordinating job needed, or professional management services here in DC at rates that would preserve the modest costs to registrants and vendors.

A BSGW sponsored IV-IBC -- BEADS 2000: TAKING STOCK FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM -- has therefore been tabled.

(BEAD EXPO 2000 is still being planned.)

 

 

A Home for the Bead Museum?

Posted 27 April 1998, Lake Placid

A move, led by Cheryl Cobern-Browne, is underfoot to get the Bead Museum, now in Prescott, Arizona (USA) to move to downtown Glendale, Arizona in the Catlin Court area. Glendale is near Phoenix, the major city of the state. The Bead Museum, founded in 1985, has won national and international acclaim as an important institution for the study and preservation of beads. Earlier negotiations to move the Bead Museum to Washington DC broke down.

The following announcement appeared in the May-June issue of the Arizona Bead Society Newsletter. It was received in April, and it is unclear exactly when the proposal will be ready. Earlier this month Gabrielle Liese, the Director of the Bead Museum, expressed optimism about the move to Glendale to this reporter. It would mean a permanent home for the collection and more room to expand research facilities near one of America's largest and fastest growing cities.

 

Bead Museum Information

Cheryl Cobern-Browne is continuing her crusade to get the Bead Museum to move to Downtown Glendale in the Glendale Catlin Court area. She will be taking the mayor and several city officials up to Prescott to see the Museum and hopefully have a proposal ready to submit to the Bead Museum's Board of Directors later this month.

Cheryl will update the Bead Society membership at our September meeting.

 

 

 

 

To the Bead Museum web site.

 

DC Bead Show is a Success

Posted 27 April 1998, Lake Placid

The Made in Africa: Beads and Other Adornments show in Washington DC is a hit. The show features a wide array of beads and objects decorated with beads from the collections of the members. It was put on by the Bead Study Group of the BS Greater Washington for the Library and Learning Center, co-located with the Bead Museum at 400 Seventh Avenue, N.W.

The show, which lasts through the summer, has no less than five curators, each chosen for their specialized knowledge. Extensive research has gone into the mounting of the show and a catalogue is being considered. Asia may be the theme of the next show at the GWBS Library and Learning Center, but that has not been announced yet.

The BSGW Bead Museum and Library and Learning Center are housed in this stately building in the booming new Cultural Quarter of Washington, DC.