Description
The Wharton Esherick Museum (WEM) is the home and studio of American artist Wharton Esherick (1887-1970), a sculptor and furniture designer who is recognized as a leader of the Studio Furniture Movement. Set on 12 wooded acres on Valley Forge Mountain in Chester County, PA, the museum’s campus includes Esherick’s hand-built studio, constructed over a 40-year period beginning in 1926, and his 1956 workshop, designed in collaboration with Louis Kahn. The site opened as a museum in 1973, was designated a National Historic Landmark for Architecture in 1993, and is a member of Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios. WEM’s mission is to preserve and exhibit Esherick’s artistic production for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of the public. WEM additionally seeks to advance and contextualize Esherick’s place in American art history, and make his work more broadly available for research and exhibition.
WEM’s holds more than 2,378 collection objects including: 50 sculptures; 250 wooden furniture pieces; over 400 woodblocks and prints; 65 oil paintings; thousands of drawings and sketches; and Esherick’s personal belongings. From ephemera to iconic examples of Esherick’s work, these objects provide visual and material insight into the artist’s engagement with the creative, social, and political movements that shaped his life and work.
WEM now seeks support for a two-year research, digitization, and conservation project, to improve stewardship and understanding of the collection, and to increase public access to the art and archives. The project would focus on completing and improving documentation of the collection, and addressing object housing and conservation issues. These efforts would significantly advance the preservation of the collection and its utilization through exhibitions and online access. WEM proposes to hire a project curatorial assistant to carry out the research and cataloguing, and engage the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts to advise on conservation and housing needs. A contract photographer would produce images of 300 top-tier collection objects to be made available on the WEM website.
The project is a timely one, in that WEM plans to prepare the 1956 workshop to function as a public space, thus increasing opportunities for the presentation of collection objects. The workshop will additionally function as an upgraded storage space. WEM’s curatorial strategy will include more frequent collection-based exhibitions, partnerships with guest curators, installations by contemporary artists, and an artist residency program.
A grant for the WEM project would continue the American Art Program’s longstanding support for the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios group, and its more recent sequence of grants to individual HAHS sites for collection-based projects that underpin good stewardship and advance goals of public access. Grant funds would support project personnel, consultants, and equipment.
