Jennifer Tobias gave a Brown Bag Lunch presentation on Thursday, January 21, at 12:15 pm. Her talk is entitled “Working with the Hands: Applied Arts Training in New York City, 1800–2020.”

In New York City we are surrounded by the decorative arts. Tobias’s project as a Bard Graduate Center Artist-in-Residence examines training programs for fourteen specific practices, from 1800s penmanship to twenty-first-century social practice. She will trace her development process from Library research to writing and making, and concluding with prototypes of the completed work.

Jennifer Tobias is a scholar and illustrator. She holds a PhD in Art History from the City University of New York, an MLS from Rutgers, and a BFA from Cooper Union. She provided reader services at the Museum of Modern Art and Parsons School of Design libraries. Her illustrations are included in Health Design Thinking and Design is Storytelling, both by Ellen Lupton. She and Lupton are currently developing Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Subversive, Non-Binary Field Guide for Graphic Design, forthcoming from Princeton Architectural Press.