Intended Audience
Merrill Mason
Artist Talk: Wed. April 3, 4:45-5:45pm, Glendening Annex
In her lecture, Mason will discuss her creative work that merges photography, textiles and poetry and is situated at the intersection of art and science. While in residence at the Artist House at SMCM for the month of April, she will be working on a large-scale quilt that uses Charles Darwin's manuscripts of On the Origin of Species as subject and source material. In her lecture she will also share her experiences as an arts administrator including her tenure as Director of the Museum of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. PA.
MERRILL MASON has balanced a career as a museum administrator and a practicing artist for over 40 years. She graduated cum laude from Yale in the first undergraduate class to include women (1971) and received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduate school she became a project coordinator at the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia and eventually the head grant writer. In 2007 Mason moved to the American Philosophical Society as Director of the APS Museum where she oversaw exhibitions curated from the Society’s renowned collection of over 13 million manuscripts plus rare books and paintings. Throughout her years as a museum administrator Mason continued to produce artwork and to exhibit. Examples include Quilt National, Award of Excellence; multiple residencies at J.M. Kohler’s Arts Industry program; and a commissioned permanent bathroom installation at the J.M. Kohler Museum. She was adjunct faculty at University of the Arts and Maryland Institute College of Art, and a Visiting Artist at schools such as Cranbrook Academy of Art, University of the Arts, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently Mason works in multiple media including photography, textiles, and poetry. She is working on a quilt using Charles Darwin’s manuscripts of On the Origin of Species. She is also creating a series of smaller pieces using Darwin’s scientific notes. Mason’s studio is in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. For more information about the artist: https://www.merrillmason.com