Art Within Reach: A Lecture by Ezra Shales

Drawing from his book, Pitchers of American Life: Art Within Reach (Bloomsbury 2026), Shales will discuss the value of a collective tool in our individualistic age. Shales’s ideas ask: might the vessels preserved from ancient indigenous American cultures, those caught in the spiderwebs of antique shops, and common tools used for drinks lurking in modern kitchens comprise an alternative history of art? And might our cupboards make the idea of art accessible and pleasantly tactile? 

The presentation will include 'show-and-touch' engagement with a selection from mass-produced goods. How does a design once on display at the London Crystal Palace in 1851 compare to one from our Plasticene era? 

Ezra Shales, Ph.D., is Professor of Art History at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He is the author of The Shape of Craft (Reaktion, 2017) and Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic Identity in the Progressive Era (Rutgers University Press, 2010). His scholarship has appeared in the Journal of Modern Craft and the Journal of Design History, and he has contributed essays to exhibition catalogs for numerous contemporary artists.

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