Lectures and Events
Gain new insight into the art and culture of Philadelphia with Woodmere’s engaging lectures and gallery talks. Hear from artists, art historians, professors, curators, and writers who offer new perspectives on the Museum’s collection, exhibitions, and related topics.
The Art of Looking
Location: Charles Knox Smith Hall, 9201 Germantown Avenue
with Flo Gelo, Medical humanities educator, psychotherapist, writer; Hildy Tow, the Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Curator of Education, Woodmere Art Museum
Thursday, February 12 | 2 pm
FREE, space limited*
*if this event fills, please contact amonroe@woodmereartmuseum.org to be placed on a waitlist.
The Art of Looking is a program that will deepen your ability to engage with art. By focusing on one artwork at a time, the program is designed to increase a viewer’s ability to observe, to engage in self-reflection enabling thoughts and feelings to evolve over time, and to promote conversation and multiple viewpoints with other participants. This program invites you to enjoy and develop relationships with works of art that nurture you more deeply.
Bodies and Souls Gallery Talk
Location: Charles Knox Smith Hall, 9201 Germantown Avenue
With Robert Cozzolino, independent curator, art historian, and critic
Saturday, March 14 | 1 pm
FREE
Join guest curator, Robert Cozzolino for a behind-the-scenes tour of Bodies and Souls: Robert and Frances Coulborn Kohler Collection. Learn about the themes and artists that inspired the Kohlers to collect late twentieth and early twenty-first century paintings, drawings, and sculpture by Philadelphia artists.
Robert Cozzolino is based in Minneapolis. He curates collaboratively, in partnership with artists, colleagues, and broad communities.
The Artistic Journey of Syd Carpenter
Location: Charles Knox Smith Hall, 9201 Germantown Avenue
with Syd Carpenter and William R. Valerio, Ph.D., The Patricia Van Burgh Allison Director and CEO, Woodmere
Saturday, March 21 | 2 pm
$15 (FREE Woodmere Members)
Woodmere’s director, William Valerio, and artist, Syd Carpenter will discuss the creative journey behind her retrospective exhibition, offering insight into the stories that shape her work and the ways her artistic expression has evolved over time. The conversation will explore the distinct phases of her practice, the development of ideas, materials, and forms, and the intertwined roles of artist and gardener that inform her vision.
Artists' Talk: Henry Bermudez and Judith Schaechter
Location: Charles Knox Smith Hall, 9201 Germantown Avenue
Moderated by guest curator, Robert Cozzolino
Saturday, April 18 | 2 pm
$10 (FREE Woodmere Members)
Join Henry Bermudez and Judith Schaechter for an artists’ talk moderated by curator Robert Cozzolino. These two powerful voices in contemporary art will explore how personal history, emotion, and cultural memory shape their work. They will discuss their artistic practices, influences, and consider the ways their art speaks to the present moment.
Henry Bermudez is a Venezuela-born artist who came to Philadelphia in 2003 seeking political asylum. His art exudes beauty and the energy of life through vibrant colors, patterns and dazzling textures that convey the sensuousness of the plants and foliage of the tropical rainforests of Latin America and his love and reverence for its cultures and mythological deities. (Bermudez became a US citizen in 2013.)
Judith Schaechter is a stained glass artist whose work weaves together psychological narratives, personal experiences, and bold subject matter, creating pieces that are both visually striking and emotionally resonant. She creates images of unique beauty that convey, as she states, "people transcending their own pain."
Stories in Art: The Shared Path of Syd Carpenter and Sana Musasama
Location: Charles Knox Smith Hall, 9201 Germantown Avenue
With artists, Syd Carpenter and Sana Musasama
Saturday, April 25 | 2 pm
$15 (FREE Woodmere Members)
Artists Syd Carpenter and Sana Musasama will reflect on their lives as artists and teachers, exploring the power of creativity and imagination to build meaningful connections. In conversation with one another, they will discuss their artistic practices, shared sources of inspiration, the challenges they have navigated as ceramic artists, and the enduring friendship that has supported and enriched their work over the years.
Sana Musasama’s ceramic and mixed-media works are influenced by her global travels and lifelong engagement with women’s studies. Her practice draws on a rich array of indigenous artistic traditions, incorporating both traditional and innovative approaches to clay and other materials. Musasama’s work is driven by concerns for women’s safety, particularly the rituals involved in rites of passage and female chastity. She is the coordinator of the Apron Project, a sustainable entrepreneurial project for girls and young women reintegrated back into society after being forced into sex trafficking and received the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Outstanding Achievement Award for her teaching and humanitarian work with victims of sex trafficking in Cambodia and the United States. Her work is in the collections of the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (NYC), the Mint Collection (Charlotte, NC), and in numerous private collections.
Syd Carpenter is known for her ceramic and sculpture work that explores identity, memory, and the stewardship of land inspired by African American gardens and farms. Working primarily in clay but often incorporating materials such as steel, wood, and found objects, she creates sculptural portraits that honor the histories of Black American land caretakers and the communities shaped by their labor. Carpenter is Professor Emerita at Swarthmore College, where she taught ceramics and sculpture for 31 years. Her work is found in the collections of renowned institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute, Montreal Museum of Art, the Swedish National Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Tang Museum of Skidmore College, RISD Museum of Art, Fuller Craft Museum, James Michener Museum, the Woodmere, and the African American Museum of Philadelphia.
