|
|
|||||
| BB11:
Society of Arts and Crafts 175 Newbury Street  Women
were active in the Society of Arts and Crafts from its beginning. It was founded
in 1897 as an expression of the Arts and Crafts Movement and is the oldest nonprofit
craft organization in America. It encourages the creation and collection of
the work of craft artists and awards an annual Medal of Excellence in Craft.
Painter and art patron Sarah Choate Sears (see BB30) was a member of the original
incorporating committee and, along with Sarah Wyman Whitman (see BB5), was an
early officer. Women who were awarded the Medal of Excellence in the early years
included: Mary Crease Sears, bookbinder; Josephine H. Shaw and Margaret Rogers,
jewelers; Sister Magdalen, Winifred Crawford, and Beatrix Holmes, illuminators;
Lydia Bush-Brown, batik dyer; and Louise Chrimes, needleworker. |
||||||
|
BB12: Guild of Boston Artists 162 Newbury Street  In
addition to the art galleries along Newbury Street, many displaying the work
of women artists and some owned or managed by women, is the Guild of Boston
Artists. It is an association of painters, sculptors, and printmakers founded
in 1914. Women have always been active in the guild and were among the charter
members. One of its goals is to bring to public attention the work of young
greater Boston artists. In addition to its public gallery, the guild sponsors
art classes in its building. Among women members was Bostonian Lilla Cabot Perry
(1847-1933), whose paintings are included in the collections of the Museum of
Fine Arts and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. She
studied in Paris and was influenced by Claude Monet. She was his neighbor in
Giverny for ten summers, beginning in 1889. Perry also taught and painted in
Tokyo for three years. Other Boston women painters include Adelaide Cole Chase
(1868-1944), who also studied in Paris and painted still life and portraits,
especially of women and children; and painter Gertrude Fiske (1878-1961), who
was a founder of the guild and was the first woman named to the Massachusetts
Art Commission. In 1930, Boston sculptor Amelia Peabody (1890-1984) held a major exhibition at the guild. Her sculpture End of an Era, depicting the last of the Boston one-horse cabs, was very popular and was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts. Although she continued to create and exhibit her sculpture, Peabody was also a philanthropist. An ardent sportswoman and lover of animals, especially horses, she provided support to the new Tufts Veterinary School. She divided her time between her home at 120 Commonwealth Avenue and her farm in Dover. Peabody continued creating sculpture late in life, turning to the medium of ceramics. She served on the boards of many Boston hospitals, donating funds - and sculptures - to them. |
||||||
|
||||||
