On April 30, 2026, Sarah Zhang, M.A. student in the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Sophie Combs, Assistant Curator of Art at Springfield Museums, will present a lecture at the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum in Springfield.
Titled A Global Art Form, A Local Collector: Chinese Cloisonné and Asian Export Art, the lecture traces the development and circulation of cloisonné, an enamel technique that moved from the Byzantine world to China, where it was transformed and refined over centuries. Focusing on the nineteenth century, Zhang examines how Western collecting practices, shaped by imperial expansion, brought Chinese cloisonné into American collections, including that of George Walter Vincent Smith.