“Beaded Glory”:
Decorative Czech & Slovak Folk Dress
News from Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kay Brookshire, Media Consultant, 865.483.4644 kbrookshire@bellsouth.net
Carroll Welch, Children’s Museum, 865.482.1074 Ext. 105 cwelch@childrensmuseumofoakridge.org
“Beaded Glory,” an exhibit of Czech and Slovak folk dress and folk art portraying the artistry and skill of village people in adorning their clothing, will be on display at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge from Nov. 5-9. An opening reception for the exhibit will be held from 5:30 – 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, in Imagination Gallery at the museum.
The exhibit will showcase beaded wedding headdresses, embroidered aprons, intricate dyed and appliquéd leather in sheepskin vests, lace-trimmed ritual cloths and a rare Bohemian wedding vest decorated with hundreds of carved fish scales. Dolls in folk dress will also be on display.
“A hundred years ago, your village dress told so much about you – whether you were young or old, married or single, a widow or a nursing mother, a young man going off to military service or someone in mourning. The tremendous variety from village to village is amazing, and then styles changed over the years, just as they do today,” said Helene Baine Cincebeaux, of Rochester, N.Y., who is bringing the exhibit to the Children’s Museum.
On display will be full outfits with headdresses and jewelry to show the variety from village to village, and the wide range of embroidery, beading, lace, leather work, felting and batik. The exhibit will include pieces made for and worn by children and young teens.
Cincebeaux and her late mother, Helen Zemek Baine, collected the folk dress and folk art during visits to many villages during 43 years. Most of the pieces came from the village people who made and wore them, and the two women learned of their traditions and customs. The collection has been exhibited in museums in a dozen states, including a year-long exhibit in the Mingei Museum of International Folk Art in California.
“We hope the colors and motifs will spark artistic creativity in the children, and adults, who come to the museum,” said Cincebeaux, editor of the quarterly “Slovakia” magazine and a guide “Treasures of Slovakia” tours for 25 years. Embroiders, lace makers and other crafts people are welcome to gain inspiration from unique color combinations and techniques. She encourages people to wear something that reflects their own heritage to the Nov. 6 opening.
Her sister, Rosalie Baine, of Atlanta, will bring vintage dolls from the Czech and Slovak Republics dressed by village women in traditional folk dress, featuring their rich embroidery and beading. Baine will also wear an elaborate folk dress from Slovensky Grob in Slovakia, where villagers imitated the dress of the nobility.
Children and adults will have an opportunity to try on hats and headdresses. The sisters, Helene and Rosalie, will be on hand to give exhibit tours, to identify heirlooms from Eastern and Central Europe, and Cincebeaux will sign her new book, “A Treasury of Slovak Folk Dress.”
Here with the sisters will be Jozef Ivaska, an opera singer and pop song writer, who will perform folk songs at the Nov. 6 opening reception. Ivaska left the former Czechoslovakia after an award-winning song he wrote was banned by the then-communist government. He went to Austria, where he sang with the Vienna and Baden Theatres for 20 years.
The Children’s Museum is open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, and from 1-4 p.m. Sunday. The museum is closed Mondays except in the summer. General admission to the Children’s Museum is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors ages 62 and older, and $6 for children ages 3-18. Admission is free for children under 3 and museum members. For more information, call the museum at (865) 482-1074 or see the web site at www.childrensmuseumofoakridge.org.