Recent Press Brings Kelly Cobb’s Research on Letty Esherick Into the Spotlight

 

“Though small, the exhibit conveys the sense of hearing from someone who’s been waiting for decades to have a word. The conversation with Letty has just begun.” – Pamela J. Forsythe, Broad Street Review

 

  This September we were delighted to open the doors on our current exhibition, Working at a Joyous Creative Thing: Weaving, Making, and Material Culture in Letty Esherick’s Legacy, organized by Wharton Esherick Museum 2025 Artist-in-Residence Kelly Cobb. The exhibition highlights Cobb’s ongoing research and creative work at WEM, pairing original textiles made by Letty with contemporary artworks by Cobb and a group of skilled collaborators. This month, we were again delighted, this time by in-depth coverage of the exhibition by Pamela J. Forsythe at the Broad Street Review. In this well-researched and beautifully written article, Forsythe captures Cobb’s “collaboration across time” with Letty Esherick and the long-overdue attention it brings to her creative life.

  By centering Letty in her project, Cobb has helped to bring the broad scope of Letty’s creative identity into focus, elevating her legacy. Letty’s artistic interests included not just textiles, but dance and movement, theater arts, jewelry, and sound art. As her knowledge about Letty expanded, Cobb invited other artists (all of whom are women, and many of whom are also mothers) to explore aspects of Letty’s practice. Artist and musician Eliza Hardy Jones, as Forsythe states, “referenced Letty’s favorite pattern and her experience in sound design in a sonic weaving, Honeysuckle Weave 24 (2025). The audiovisual work plays softly in the Visitors Center, where the exhibition is displayed.” In her piece Embroidery, textile artist Nicole Feller-Johnson riffs off of Letty’s embroidery designs with high-end fashion beadwork. In another piece on display, artists Joy Ude and Kelly Cobb reenvision a block-printed ensemble by Letty; the new version offering the fish depicted an energetic blue green ocean where there was once blank background. In this way, these and other works by Cobb and her collaborators ensure that, as Forsythe puts it, “the wife of [a] famous woodworker finally gets her due.”   Working at a Joyous Creative Thing, which is on view in the Visitor Center through December 28, 2025, marks the mid-point of Cobb’s project with WEM with ongoing projects planned for this fall through spring of 2026. On November 15th join us for Cobb’s workshop Weaving a Joyous Creative Thing: Mini Tapestries Inspired by Letty Esherick. Don’t miss your chance to see this exhibition. In perhaps our favorite lines from the Broad Street Review, “Though small, the exhibit conveys the sense of hearing from someone who’s been waiting for decades to have a word. The conversation with Letty has just begun.”  

 

» Read the full article in the Broad Street Review

» View the Exhibition

» Please note, guests wishing to enter the Studio must make advance reservations for a tour. Details about visiting can be found here. 

Additional Press:

» Read about collaborator Sophia Gupman and Cobb’s research at University of Delaware

» Sophia Gupman: Reframing Letty Eshrick’s Legacy

» Kelly Cobb: Artist-in-Residence

 

Upcoming Event:

» November 15th – Weaving a Joyous Creative Thing: Mini Tapestries Inspired by Letty Esherick

    Post written by Deputy Director of Operations and Public Engagement Katie Wynne October 2025