David Barquist, the new curator of American decorative arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, has been at his post for almost a year. He's a distinguished art historian with 23 years of experience at the Yale University Art Gallery and a broad range of accomplishments as a curator, writer and teacher. Dr. Barquist has authored books on the colonial New York silversmith Myer Myers as well as tables, looking glasses and other miscellany in the Yale collection. Barquist is taking over just as the collections he oversees are getting more space to breathe, when the PMA is preparing to grow the American art galleries as part of a larger expansion. He talks about his plans for the galleries, Philadelphia's contemporary craftspeople and a few of his favorite things.

City Paper: What brought you to Philadelphia?

David Barquist: I've always been interested in Philadelphia. My master's thesis at Winterthur was on 18th-century Philadelphia—specifically, on the introduction of the neoclassical style after the Revolutionary War. The decorative arts collection here is one of the best in the country and it's in a great museum, so this is a great and exciting opportunity.

CP: Could you describe collections under your care?

DB: Sure! The objects under my care are domestic furnishings from the beginning of European settlement to the present that were made or used in America. That can be interpreted very broadly. For example, one subcollection that falls in this department is contemporary craft. A lot of these objects aren't really domestic furnishings—or particularly functional—but they are a continuation of the media that started out as domestic furnishings, like furniture, ceramics or wood turning. I think one of the interesting things about 20th- and the 21st-century pieces is how traditional media live on in the present day by, essentially, becoming vehicles of artistic expression rather than being functional objects.

CP: Do you have any favorite objects in the PMA collection?

DB: Wow, that's a hard question! I will say that the first few months that I was here I walked through this building spellbound by the art—it's just amazing. One of my favorite pieces is the hot water urn by Richard Humphreys that was presented to the secretary of the Continental Congress in 1776. It's the earliest piece of neoclassical silver that's documented in America. Also, the Pennsylvania German collections here are extraordinary! The Hüber wardrobe, which has this wonderful inlaid sulfur decoration, is one of my favorite pieces of furniture. But, I have lots of favorite objects. … I'm an object person.

CP: What projects are in the works for American decorative arts?

DB: As you know there's a master plan for expanding and rejigging the whole museum in the works and one of the major beneficiaries of that plan will be the American galleries because we will double our size. It's a long-term project, so we're starting by taking closer looks at different aspects of the collection. This fall we did a symposium on our period rooms sponsored by the McNeil Center for American Art. We wanted to sort out the compromises that were made by Fiske Kimball in the 1920s to both fit them into the museum in a literal architectural sense and to fit them into his walk-through-time that he created with the period rooms from Asia and from Europe. We are going to publish the papers from the symposium, so one thing I'm doing now is writing up the presentation that I did on the Pennsylvannia German kitchen. Long-term, we're doing a systematic evaluation of the collection. For example, we're hoping to have a specialist come in the winter and look at our collection of Tucker porcelain. William Tucker, the first really successful porcelain company in the United States, was here in Philadelphia. … Since I'm relatively new, I'm still living with the installation that I've inherited, but I have been making some changes in it. I reinstalled the pewter case, … for example, after we received a wonderful gift of American pewter objects in the late summer.

CP: What are the biggest challenges you face in your job as a curator?

DB: I think there's probably a museum somewhere with enough space to show everything, but I've never been there! The frustration is that we have so much in storage. The expansion will allow us to redress that situation in a major way. I think that there will probably be a component of study storage—a new idea in art museums of having visible storage. My colleagues and I have been looking at study-storage facilities at other museums to get ideas.

CP: What is your vision for the future of American decorative arts?

DB: Well, my vision is certainly to build on what we have. The Philadelphia Museum of Art has a wonderful tradition of showcasing decorative arts, which has not been the case at all American art museums. They've often been considered "minor arts" and sort of shuttled off to the side. This museum from the beginning had a really strong focus on decorative arts and I think that's why the collections are so good. I'd like to see that continue. In the past the historic collections of decorative arts and the contemporary collections have been separated spatially, but I would very much like to see the American art story done as a continuum, from the 17th century to the 21st century. That's the general plan for our new galleries.

CP: What do you like most about the city of Philadelphia?

DB: Well, I like the urban environment in Philadelphia, the cultural activities, the galleries in Old City and the energy that's here right at hand. To experience that in New Haven you had to go to New York. I think a neat thing about Philadelphia is that history is right here—it's underfoot. You never know what's going to turn up here. There's this wonderful connection between the historical collections here and the place, and at the same time there's such a strong contemporary art scene. The collections at the PMA have relevance to the art community here. When it was founded in the 19th century, one of the stated goals for this museum was to provide models for contemporary designers and artists. I think it's very important to have that inspirational relationship with artists in the community. America is becoming more homogenized and globalized, and I think having a real sense of place and a regional identity is a wonderful thing.