PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN ANNOUNCES
NEW CHAIR OF HISTORY OF DECORATIVE ARTS

(New York, NY—February 4, 2003). Parsons School of Design Dean, H. Randolph Swearer, announced the appointment of Sarah E. Lawrence to the position of Director of the History of Decorative Arts Program. This Master's Program is offered jointly by Parsons School of Design, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, and the Smithsonian Associates in Washington, D.C.

The History of Decorative Arts graduate program, which just celebrated its twentieth anniversary, prepares students to become decorative arts historians, curators, educators and administrators. Over one hundred students are currently enrolled. The faculty is drawn from the curatorial staff at Smithsonian Institution museums, as well as other distinguished institutions such as The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum, and The Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

"Sarah's experience, insights, and leadership have made her invaluable to the History of Decorative Arts program," says Parsons Dean, H. Randolph Swearer. "We look forward to her ongoing excellent work."

With last summer's "discovery" of the Michelangelo drawing within the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's collection, Lawrence was put in charge of the curatorial team that verified the attribution and was the spokesperson for the Museum. In addition to her academic duties, Lawrence will continue her work in exhibitions, working closely with the Museum director and with the curatorial staff.

Lawrence received her B.A. from Swarthmore College and her Ph.D. in Art History from Columbia University. From 1997 to 2000 Lawrence was a Mellon Curatorial Fellow in Judaica at the Jewish Museum, New York. Lawrence has taught in the Masters Program in the History of Decorative Arts since 1999 and she was appointed to the position of Acting Chair in 2001. Her field of expertise is Renaissance decorative arts, with special interest in metalwork from that period. She has published widely on portrait medals, small metalwork sculpture, and the furnishings of the Studiolo in Renaissance Italy.

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Parsons School of Design, a division of New School University, is one of the largest degree-granting colleges of art and design in the nation. Currently enrolled are about 2,400 undergraduate students, 500 graduate students, and 2,500 non-degree students from all 50 of the United States and from 60 countries. Parsons' main campuses are located in New York City's Greenwich Village and Midtown Manhattan. In addition, Parsons has affiliate schools in Paris, France; Kanazawa, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; and at Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic. Undergraduate degrees are offered in Architectural Design, Communication Design, Design and Management, Design and Technology, Fashion Design, Fine Arts, Illustration, Interior Design, Photography, Product Design. Graduate degrees are granted in Architecture, Design and Technology, Lighting Design, Painting and Sculpture, Photography, and the History of Decorative Arts.