Event Details - SIMS Conference

 The Conference covers a two day span over October 28th and 29th.  On Friday, Oct 28th, from 4-7pm, we will have a Gallery Reception for our renowned “Form, Forge, and Fabricate” exhibition located here at Southern Illinois University Museum. Following the Reception will be our visiting artist’s Lecture from 7pm-9pm, also held in the Museum.

We are honored to have Jake James as this year’s visiting artist. Mr. James is an award winning blacksmith who originally hailed from England where he achieved his Journeyman’s Certificate from the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths. From there he traveled the world refining and adding to his store of smithing knowledge, with his home at Vancouver Island. We are pleased that he will be demonstrating this year, as he will share a wide variety of complex blacksmithing techniques not often taught.

The Demonstration will be held on Saturday, October 29th from 9am-4pm. It will be located at the legendary L. Brent Kington Smithy here at Pulliam Hall, SIU Campus. Coffee, snacks, and light refreshments will be provided, as well as an opportunity to purchase some SIMS merchandise, and a sneak peek at Auction items. And be sure to take in our impressive forge area; easily one of the best and most robust in the nation.

And finally, the Auction. Every year, the SIMS Auction attracts hundreds of prospective buyers, hopeful that they may nab a Smithsonian-worthy art piece . This isn’t hyperbole, as past artists have had work featured in hundreds of museums such as the Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Crafts Show, Penland School of Crafts, and The Metal Museum, to name just a few. Past artists have also been awarded multiple grants, fellowships, and endowments, making the Auction one of the few places to reasonably purchase art created at this elite level.

This Event is Partially Funded by the Fine Arts Activity Fee