The Plastic Club
The Plastic Club is an art organization located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1897 as an art organization for women to promote collaboration and members' works, and is one of the oldest such organizations in the United States. Since 1991, its membership also includes men.[1]
History
It was founded by Emily Sartain and other artists and its early members included Elenore Plaisted Abbott, Paula Himmelsbach Balano, Cecilia Beaux, Fern Coppedge, Blanche Dillaye, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Charlotte Harding, Frances Tipton Hunter, Violet Oakley, Emily and Harriet Sartain, Jessie Willcox Smith, and Alice Barber Stephens, many of whom had been students of Howard Pyle.[1][2] When the fall exhibition was held in 1898, the works of Pyle's former students—Elizabeth Fearne Bonsall, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Jessie Willcox Smith, Charlotte Harding, Violet Oakley, and Angela De Cora—were singled out.[2]
The club offered art classes, social events and exhibitions. Its annual masquerade party was "the Rabbit."[1][2] In 1991 the organization opened its membership to include men and during the 1990s sought to attract art students.[1]
Noted past members
The Plastic Club has identified the following noted past members:[3]
- Elenore Plaisted Abbott
- Paula Himmelsbach Balano
- Cecilia Beaux
- Fern T. Coppedge
- Blanche Dillaye
- Grace Gebbie Wiederseim Drayton
- Beatrice Fenton
- Beatrice Fox
- Elizabeth Shippen Green
- Violet Oakley
- Esther Richards
- Harriet Sartain
- Emily Sartain
- Jessie Willcox Smith
- Wuanita Smith
- Alice Barber Stephens
- Alice Kent Stoddard
- Beatrice Pastorius Turner
- Sarah Stilwell Weber
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Plastic Club. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Jill P. May; Robert E. May; Howard Pyle (2011). Howard Pyle: Imagining an American School of Art. University of Illinois Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-252-03626-2.
- ↑ "Noted Past Members". The Plastic Club. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
Further reading
- Plastic Club; Violet Oakley; Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green (1902). The Plastic Club Catalogue: Exhibition of Work by Violet Oakley, Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green. Philadelphia: Plastic Club.