This week our speaker was Petra Slinkard, the Director of Curatorial Affairs and the Nancy B. Putnam Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the Peabody Essex Museum. Petra joined PEM in 2018, following her role as Curator of Costume at the Chicago History Museum. At PEM, she fosters the growth and inclusive spirit of the museum’s celebrated fashion initiative to develop a vibrant array of exhibitions, installations and programming that celebrate the global impact and reach of fashion and textiles. 

Petra began by describing her time in Indianapolis and Chicago, where she spoke at Rotary, as well as her move to Salem. She has found Salem to be very welcoming. Petra has continuously been inspired by the collections at the PEM, and appreciates the creativity and quality of designs there. Textiles tend to be some of the most fragile items at a museum, so rotating objects is something that they had to plan around. They designed this approach by thinking about all of the ways that these items are used in our lives.

The gallery itself is divided into nine sections. They had to create a layout that worked for a story to be told no matter how one entered the gallery. Each of the sections starts with the idea of removing all preconceived notions and goes into the intricacies of that particular section. Items in each section are paired, for example a prominent bed was paired with quilts. Another example is a the uniform of soldier from the War of 1812 that is paired with a dress featuring camouflage features. That uniform will be rotated out soon, so head there as soon as possible!

The main fashion area, which includes many of the collection pieces, features Red Cross nurse outfits. They are simple and functional, but also show a high level of creativity and design. There is a large breadth and depth to the entire collection. Petra spoke about the local fashion and designers, and how to incorporate these stories into the gallery. Finally, she did note that the PEM has one of the largest shoe collections in the country. 

We were treated to some 1980s "dancing" by our fearless President Claire Kallelis. If you missed it, you missed it. She was very excited to receive a massive package from Rotary International, which was a Paul Harris Fellow award. This was given to our very own Mike McLaughlin, making him a plus three. Congratulations Mike! The short introduction was much more engaging due to the absence of normal toast maker, Jason Consalvo.

Our baseball winner this week was Alex Sanchez, who gets to sit with the youngest member at lunch, which apparently means he will be sitting by himself next week.  A reminder that our goal is to hit our retention and growth goals. Claire and Jen both got stars for attending events while wearing Rotary hats. Bruce and Liz both also earned stars for inviting guests last week. Scott Grover spoke to a past Rotarian about attending the auction.

According to Rinus Oosthoek, the legislative lunch calendar is filling up!