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X-WR-CALNAME:Laura A. Macaluso
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://lauramacaluso.com
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Laura A. Macaluso
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DTSTART:20260308T070000
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DTSTART:20261101T060000
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261002
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261004
DTSTAMP:20260529T113607
CREATED:20260401T193529Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260401T193529Z
UID:1889-1790899200-1791071999@lauramacaluso.com
SUMMARY:Experiencing Independence in a Vanished House: Eyewitness Accounts from Mt. Pleasant\, New York
DESCRIPTION:This paper examines Mt. Pleasant in New York\, an estate where a crossroads of voices existed during the American Revolution. Due to the demolition of the house one hundred years later\, the house and its inhabitants—a gardener and his wife\, British Generals James Howe and Henry Clinton\, prisoners-of-war the Baron and “Mrs. General” Fredericke Reidesel and their family from Germany\, General George Washington\, Captain Nathan Hale and Major John André\, among others—and the things they experienced there\, have not received much attention from scholars. This paper centers on the crossroads of activity at Mt. Pleasant through the eyes of its residents and visitors. What can we learn about this long-gone site on the East River through the diary of Lady Reidesel\, the notes left behind by the gardener\, John Hannah\, the material culture saved from the house in museum collections\, and British accounts of the hanging of the young spy Nathan Hale from Connecticut? Mt. Pleasant\, no longer extant\, played an important role in the American Revolution and deserves such attention.
URL:https://lauramacaluso.com/event/experiencing-independence-in-a-vanished-house-eyewitness-accounts-from-mt-pleasant-new-york/
LOCATION:Historic Trappe\, Trappe\, PA\, 19426\, United States
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261106
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261109
DTSTAMP:20260529T113607
CREATED:20260504T235441Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260504T235441Z
UID:1898-1793923200-1794182399@lauramacaluso.com
SUMMARY:New Netherland and the World
DESCRIPTION:Global Encounters in a Dutch American Estate: Reimagining Mount Pleasant \nThis paper examines Mount Pleasant in New York as a site shaped by the enduring influence of Dutch-descended families in the Hudson River Valley\, with particular focus on the Beekman family and their estate along the East River. Although the house no longer survives\, its architectural features\, cultivated landscape\, and patterns of use reflect the persistence and adaptation of Dutch cultural traditions into the eighteenth century. The design of the house\, its greenhouse\, and its extensive orchards evoke earlier Dutch approaches to land stewardship\, horticulture\, and domestic space\, situating Mount Pleasant within a broader continuum of New Netherland’s material and environmental legacy. By reconstructing the estate through surviving descriptions\, material culture\, and landscape history\, this paper positions Mount Pleasant as an important example of how Dutch-descended elites maintained and transformed inherited practices in a period of political upheaval. \nAt the same time\, Mount Pleasant functioned as a dynamic crossroads of local and global actors during the American Revolution. The Beekman family’s social and political networks brought together figures as varied as James Beekman and George Washington\, Fredericka Charlotte Riedesel and Major John Andre\, and British military leaders such as William Howe and Henry Clinton. The estate also became entangled in wartime events\, including the capture and execution of Nathan Hale\, while hosting soldiers\, prisoners of war\, and working inhabitants like the gardener John Hannah and his wife. In tracing these overlapping presences\, the paper argues that Mount Pleasant exemplifies how a Dutch-descended estate became a node of transatlantic exchange\, where inherited cultural forms and revolutionary-era encounters converged within a single\, now-vanished domestic landscape.
URL:https://lauramacaluso.com/event/new-netherland-and-the-world/
LOCATION:New York State Museum\, Albany\, United States
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261111
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261114
DTSTAMP:20260529T113607
CREATED:20260401T194124Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260401T194124Z
UID:1893-1794355200-1794614399@lauramacaluso.com
SUMMARY:Inclusive Monuments in a Founding Landscape: Public Art\, Interpretation\, and the Afterlives of Declaration House
DESCRIPTION:This presentation examines Declaration House\, a 2024 public art and history exhibition presented by Monument Lab at Declaration House in Philadelphia\, Pennsylvania. Located within Independence National Historical Park\, the site marks the spot where Thomas Jefferson drafted the United States Declaration of Independence\, with his enslaved servant\, Robert Hemings\, present. The exhibition sought to reframe this foundational location and national narrative by centering Hemmings’ presence—and that of his descendants.  \nThe project premiered Sonya Clark’s installation The Descendants of Monticello\, a monumental montage of blinking eyes projected onto the historic façade. The work features descendants of the more than 400 people enslaved at Monticello\, including individuals biologically related to Jefferson\, creating a powerful visual intervention that foregrounds the entangled histories of freedom and enslavement embedded in the nation’s founding narrative. In addition to the installation\, Monument Lab facilitated participatory programs and a visitor “Welcome Station\,” where the public was invited to respond through drawings and reflections\, planned to inform interpretation at the park in advance of the United States Semiquincentennial in 2026. Those plans are likely in jeopardy.  \nSituating this project within debates about representation and redress in heritage spaces\, the paper analyzes how Monument Lab’s work\, alongside its educational initiative\, the School of Monument Making\, positions monument-making as a civic practice that cultivates connection\, belonging\, and kinship through collaborative interpretation. At the same time\, the project raises critical questions about the durability and institutional support of such interventions. What has changed at Declaration House and within Philadelphia’s public history landscape since the exhibition’s debut in 2024? Have the participatory responses gathered from visitors meaningfully shaped interpretation as the Semiquincentennial approaches? How do these efforts intersect with recent controversies over the removal or reinterpretation of historical exhibits during the administration of Donald Trump? And more broadly\, can participatory monument-making sustain its critical force once incorporated into official commemorative frameworks in the city most closely associated with the country’s founding?  \nBy examining Declaration House as both artwork and interpretive experiment\, this paper explores how public art can challenge historical omissions while revealing the tensions inherent in efforts to build more inclusive narratives of national memory\, especially timely in the Semiquincentennial year.
URL:https://lauramacaluso.com/event/inclusive-monuments-in-a-founding-landscape-public-art-interpretation-and-the-afterlives-of-declaration-house/
LOCATION:University of Johannesburg\, Johannesburg\, South Africa
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