Dr. Joyce Corbett, a museum curator and independent researcher of folk art, received an IREX travel grant to Romania in 1976 to conduct research on folk costumes and textiles. Dr. Corbett recently shared with IREX about her how her research has evolved to investigate cross-cultural influences across national boundaries and where her research has taken her since her first trip to Eastern Europe.
How did your experience in the field lead to where you are now?
The initial research grants from IREX gave me the jump-start for all my future research. I did not just complete a specific project while in Romania in the 70s, but the personal and professional contacts I made, the access to museum and private collections, and the exposure to folk culture in the field were irreplaceable assets to my future work.
My research dating from that time continues. I still have projects projected for the future: a comprehensive exhibition and publication of the folk costume of the Carpathian basin, an exhibition of the folk headdress of central Europe, and historical work documenting the discovery of folk cultures in Romania around 1900, all subjects I am pursuing, developed from those experiences.
What was it like to conduct research at that time?
I arrived in Bucharest in 1976, which was at the height of the Ceausescu era. Life in Romania was very difficult at that time, to say the least, and all contact with foreign researchers was very restricted. I can say that despite extremely difficult political conditions, not always encouraging to foreigners in these countries, my research was welcomed and facilitated through extraordinary personal contacts. That generation of particular ethnographers and historians, having lived through war and political turmoil, was able to welcome scholars from abroad, with a vision extending across national borders. It was their unreserved desire to share their knowledge with others that endures.
How has your regional expertise evolved over time?
I have continued to work as a museum curator and independent researcher specializing in Central Europe, especially in Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. I have curated two major exhibitions with catalogs on Romanian folk art and textiles. The first was “Romanian Folk Textiles” at the Craft and Folk Art Museum [5], Los Angeles, CA in 1978. The most recent one was at Mingei International Museum of Art [6], San Diego, CA, “Between East and West: Folk Art Treasures of Romania”, in 2010.