Off the Beaten Path

The Coffee House Club
20 West 44th St
6th Floor
New York, NY 10036
Doors open 6:00pm
Lecture 6:45pm

Off the Beaten Path: A Yen for the Obscure and Under-appreciated in Textile Art and Basketry. This talk will address Mr. Spurr’s love for Non-Western textiles and basketry. He will take a look at the traditions that particularly attracted his attention, often little known in wider collecting circles.  Especially from Africa, Indonesia, and Oceania.

Jeff Spurr is an independent scholar of Islamic textiles, and of the history of photography in the Middle East. He is also a dedicated collector of Non-Western textiles and basketry from many traditions. During 26 years at Harvard he developed and managed collections of historical photographs (ca. 1850-1970) of the Middle East and adjacent regions, as well as slide and digital collections documenting Islamic visual culture. He has curated several exhibits, and published articles and given papers in both fields.