Biography
Sarah Brokenborough is an art historian, curator, writer, and PhD student in Art History and Latin American Studies at Tulane University. Her interdisciplinary research examines decorative arts and needlework education in the United States and the Caribbean, while using gender as a lens of analysis. Focusing on Afro-Caribbean craft traditions, Sarah explores how women’s fiber arts expressed and shaped ideas of womanhood and girlhood during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her work highlights the artistic expression, creative agency, and labor of Black women and girls within broader histories of art and craft.
Project summary
Crafted Economies: Tracing Jamaican and Bajan Women’s Lace-bark Doilies to New Orleans highlights the skill, creativity, and ingenuity of Caribbean women artists and their impact on decorative arts and arts education in New Orleans. The project examines the production and commercialization of Jamaican lace-bark doilies in Kingston, Jamaica, and Bridgetown, Barbados, as well as their display and reception at the 1884 World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans. By combining local materials, distinctive designs, and global trends, these women developed a unique craft tradition that emphasized plant motifs and asserted their economic independence. This research also contributes to Sarah’s exhibition Quiet Reserve: Stitching an Ambitious New Woman at the Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University.
