Spotlight Talk: June Groff

In celebration of the textile works and artist relationships currently featured in our Home as Stage exhibition, we are excited to highlight the work of artist June Groff (1903-1974). In this fun 20-minute talk, we’ll explore Esherick and Groff’s friendship, evident in the letters and artworks exchanged between them, along with a look at Groff’s paintings and textile works throughout the Studio – both on display and those tucked away in the closets!

Home as Stage Virtual Opening

We celebrated the opening of Home as Stage, the final installment in our 50th anniversary year exhibition series in which we explore the idea of “home.” Featuring the work of four Philadelphia-based contemporary artists – Emily Carris-Duncan, Kay Healy, Colin Pezzano, and Stacey Lee Webber – complemented by a selection of textile objects on loan to WEM from The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Home as Stage asks visitors to consider Esherick’s home and Studio not only as the set on which the artist’s ambitions played out, but also as a stage that hosted players – often other artists – whose conversation, collaboration, and connection made Esherick’s life that much richer and more profound. Enjoy hearing from the artists in the exhibition and their experience using Esherick’s Studio as a stage for their own creative practices!

Spotlight Talk: Coat Peg Portraits

When Wharton Esherick built his stone Studio on the hillside above his home, he saved a space to recognize those who had helped him in its construction. Just inside the Studio front door, a series of wooden coat pegs each carved in the likeness of Esherick’s collaborators, and one for himself, playfully meld artistry and function. In this 20 minute spotlight talk, we’ll take a closer look at this cast of characters – John Schmidt, Albert Kulp, Aaron Coleman, Larry Hand, and Esherick himself – highlighting who they were and the role they played in creating this iconic space.

Creatives on Esherick: Virginia Blanchard

Enjoy a conversation with artist and furniture maker Virginia Blanchard, the first place prize winner in Home as Self, WEM’s 28th Annual Juried Exhibition showcasing a wide range of approaches to what it means to make a self-portrait. We’ll chat with Virginia about her piece in the exhibition titled Like The Virgin, her artistic path and evolution, her thoughtful and contemporary use of historic techniques including straw marquetry, and how her work intersects with Esherick’s philosophy and outlook.

Virginia Blanchard is a designer/maker of custom commissioned furniture and smaller batch goods. Her influences are primarily from late 19th through early 20th century European decorative arts, as well as abstracted natural forms. She primarily works with wood, straw, and reed, with a focus on marquetry and inlay. Virginia grew up in Pelham, New York.  After earning her B.A. in Russian from New York University, she went to study woodworking at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. She now lives in Mid-Coast Maine, designing and building furniture out of her 1848 ship captain’s home which she will be lovingly restoring for the rest of her natural life. Virginia shares her home with two excellent shelter mutts who are no help at all.