Dylis Blum spoke at the Modern Design History Seminar on Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Her talk was entitled “From Industry to Art: Collecting and Exhibiting Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.”

Since the founding of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1876, textiles have been a cornerstone of the institution’s collections. Dr. Blum’s presentation examined the textile collection from its beginnings as a resource for industry to recent projects with artists through the lens of acquisitions, displays, and exhibitions.

Dilys Blum is the Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. After graduating with a degree in art history from Connecticut College, she completed her graduate studies in the UK at the University of Manchester and the Courtauld Institute of Art. Since joining the museum in 1987 she has curated over forty exhibitions on historic and contemporary textiles, costume, and fashion. She has written on a wide range of subjects from African American quilts to fashion and Surrealism. She was curator of the acclaimed exhibition Shocking: the Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli (2003), Roberto Capucci: Art into Fashion (2011) and most recently Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love (2014).