December 2025

This post is dedicated to William Valerio, since 2010 the Patricia Van Burgh Allison Director and CEO of Woodmere. 

 

Woodmere (formerly Woodmere Art Museum) is a museum of the art of metropolitan Philadelphia.

 

Bill Valerio has revived Woodmere and restored it to its community.  With this enlargement, he has now safeguarded the collection for rotating, continuous display. He accomplished this with many colleagues and contributors of several kinds of gifts and services.

 

This post is also dedicated to Glen Sacks, Bill Valerio’s husband, for his immeasurable support of Bill’s work at Woodmere.

 

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 All art shown in this post belongs to Woodmere unless otherwise noted.

 

Woodmere is situated in Chestnut Hill in the northwest of the city, its highest point.

 

Woodmere’s Charles Knox Smith Hall 

 

 

Bronze sculptures of Viorel Farcas, American born Romania, 1950 are on the front lawn 

 

 

1910:  Charles Knox Smith opened his house in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia to showcase his art in the natural environment in which the house sits. 

1940: Woodmere Art Museum was founded in this house.

This building, now renamed Charles Knox Smith Hall, will remain the site for Woodmere’s 19th century works, special exhibitions and display of children’s art.

 

 

 

A partial view of the largest gallery – bi-level and circular – in the Charles Knox Smith Hall during an exhibition 

 

 

Woodmere’s Frances M. Maguire Hall for Art and Education

 

 

 

2021: Woodmere was able to acquire a second house, walkably close and on the same major thoroughfare: Germantown Avenue.

It was built in 1853 in Gothic Revival style for a partner in a metal firm.

 

 

 

The house – to which 2 large Italianate style wings were added in 1899 for a current total of 17000 square feet – was subsequently owned by two other families.

 

House and land, reduced in time by development to 4 acres, were purchased in 1927 by the  Roman Catholic Order of the Sisters of  St. Joseph for the purposes of a school first and, latterly, a residence hall for nuns 

It was from this Order that Woodmere acquired house and land in 2021.

 

 

 

 

Sweet Grapes, 1928, bronze

Harriet Whitney Freshmuth, American 1880-1980

 

 

 

The Spirit Song, 2025, teak, stainless steel

Robert Tiffany, American 

 

 

2023-October 2025:  with a lead gift of money from the Maguire Foundation and with matching funds from many sources, Woodmere, along with her architects, engineers, landscape planners, gardeners, artists, specialist artisans, and staff; and with the scrutiny and guidance of Philadelphia city officials, converted this house into an auxiliary museum.

 

It is named for Frances M. Maguire, American, 1935-2020, the matriarch of the Maguire clan and a former trustee of Woodmere and herself an artist.

 

 

Portrait of Frances Maguire, 2024, oil on canvas 

Kassem Amoudi, American born Jordan 1951

 

 

The conversion has rendered 14 galleries on four floors:  a doubling of Woodmere’s exhibition space.  Maguire Hall is for rotating displays of up to 500 works from the museum’s permanent collection (11000+ works); and for exhibiting new acquisitions. 

 

 

 

North side

North side

North side

Maquette, c. 1950, cast 2025, bronze

Edward Fenne Hoffman III, 1916-1992, American

 

 

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The populism in power in the United Sates with its roots in a conservative philosophy leaning towards small government and anti-immigration policy at home and differential isolationism abroad has led to a contestation of every aspect of Federal governance and international relations.

 

From artists and artisans and the institutions which harbour them, Federal support has been almost entirely withdrawn. Where funding continues, political censorship has, in the majority of cases, been threatened or imposed.

 

 

Entrance corridor

The light fixture is from the Boyd Theater, center city Philadelphia, discontinued in 2002 and demolished in 2015

 

 

The creative and co-operative processes of this Woodmere expansion, as with its practices of the last 15 years at its Charles Knox Smith Hall , are an example of another philosophy:  that of human thriving.

 

The purposes of Woodmere’s work in the arts are to sustain and expand the reach and interaction of our artists, artisans and communities. This work  includes music, panel discussion, cinema, instruction, therapeutic art, play, circus, and the planting and care of natural environments.

This is a commitment to the practices of human thriving.

 

We are at the eve of the 250th anniversary of the American Republic.

 

It is Woodmere’s work which is in the lineage of the philosophy and governance of William Penn, the English Quaker who founded the state of Pennsylvania in 1681 as a refuge for immigrants fleeing religious persecution in Europe in order to create the peaceable politics of tolerance and communal prosperity.

 

 

Peaceable Kingdom, 1975, ceramic

William Daley, American, 1925-2022

 

 

A year later Penn founded the city of Philadelphia where in 1776 the Republic was established.

 

 

 

The rear of the Hall which is built on a ridge which cross-cuts Chestnut Hill

 

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A home of a museum 

The renovation restored the original character of a family home built and enlarged over the last 100+ years.  It has done this while adhering to the strict safeguarding standards for an urban public space. 

 

Some features of museum-as-home:

The size and disposition of rooms remain mainly as they were when the Hall was last a family residence. 

 

Paintings have been hung in the salon style of Victorian houses, jostled up and cozy against each other:

 

 

View of the narrowest hallway in the Hall. 2nd floor

Photo © Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

 

 

 

 

Self-Portrait, 1978, oil on canvas. 

Edith Neff,   1943-1995, American

 

 

 

 

 

Morning Ritual, 2016, mixed media on canvas.

Mickayel Thurin, American, born 1987

 

 

 

Apollo, 1971, oil on canvas

Martha Mayer Erlebacher, 1937-2013, American

 

 

 

The building’s lustrous dark woodwork has been reburnished.

 

 

Behind the finial, Bamboo, c. 1975, acrylic on canvas

Tom Palmore, American born 1944

 

 

A wallpaper, remnants of whose Victorian exuberance were found in a room, has been reconstructed and applied to the walls of that room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The work of various Pennsylvania Impressionists on the wall

 

 

Likewise the original deep red paint uncovered on a decorative element in the wainscot of the breakfast nook.

 

 

Early 20th century white oak.  Edward Maene, 1852-1931, American born Belgium

 

 

Breakfast nook restored to its original appearance

 

 

Window ledges have been used for ‘casual’  display of objects as in any home:

 

 

Untitled (Standing Female Nude), 1975, epoxy resin  

Paul Anthony Greenwood, American, 1921-1985

 

 

 

Embrace, date unknown, black marble

Selma Hortense Burke, American, 1900-1995

 

 

The quality of the light in the house is enveloping and restful.

This was achieved by modulating the focus of gallery spotlights with the natural light of the windows of the house. A majority of these windows were retained. 

 

 

 

Remembrance, 1985, acrylic on canvas

Barbara Bullock, American born 1935

 

 

 

An exhibition of the Snowpeople, 2022-2024, of Peter Paone in the attic’s galleries for works on paper and photography.

Peter Paone, American born 1936

 

 

The Canyon 5, 1990, watercolor on Arches paper

Ruth Fine, American born 1941

 

 

 

 

 

Untitled (Playing Chess),  oil on canvas. 

Morris Blackburn, 1902-1979.  Promised gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of Art to the Woodmere Museum, Philadelphia

 

 

 

Landscape for St. John of the Cross, 1955, oil on canvas

Larry Day, 1921-1988, American

 

 

 

 

Nick King and Kangaroos, date unknown, oil on canvas.

Edith Neff, American, 1943-1995

 

 

 

 

 

Poured Orange Blue, mid-1970s, acrylic on canvas

Murray Dessner, 1934-2012, American

 

 

 

 

Afternoon (Peggy Karp on a Striped Sofa), 1968, oil on canvas

Mitzi Melnicoff, 1922-1972, American. Woodmere Museum of Art, Philadelphia

 

 

 

 

Francisco, 1986, oil on wooden panel

Rafael Ferrer, American born 1933  

Grill work on the door is the work of John Rais, American born 1973

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fruitful Darkness, 1997, oil on canvas mounted on wood panel, 1997

Bruce Pollock, American born 1951

 

 

 

 

Also, retrieved light fixtures – Saturn lights – made by the atelier of Frode Christian Valdemar Rambush, an immigrant from Denmark to New York, have been put in place.  They come from the very well known and much frequented Art Deco Boyd Theater in center city Philadelphia (in use 1928-2002).

 

These fixtures have added to every room in which they have been installed not only their soft, circular glow, but also another kind of light for those who knew the Boyd Theater:  of memory slipped suddenly out of regret for the loss of this theater, demolished in 2015, to a surprised pleasure at its lingering, re-incarnation in this Hall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside, Pennsylvania blue schist assures Philadelphians that we are at home and not in some other place. Widely used in the city, this particular schist is much admired.

 

 

 

 

 

The organizing exception made for the first gallery at the entrance of the Hall on the right adds one more sense to the theme of museum-as-home.

 

The Hall’s galleries focus on the phases and styles of art made in the Philadelphian metropolitan region in the 20th and 21st centuries; or on a common medium.

 

The first gallery, however, deals not with a phase or style but with an important function of art: its healing property:  its uses for promoting spiritual resilience in the face of incomprehensible fate or human behaviour; and of aiding with individual and collective recovery. 

 

This is a primary spiritual duty of human family and of its socialization of children. Likewise of human society; and of nations. The use of art is one important technique.

This first room is inhabited by the spirit of family. I imagined the families who lived here and have gone.

 

These are some of the works chosen for this room: 

 

 

Madre del Nene, 1990, oil on linen 

Bo Bartlett, American born 1955.

The artist’s son died as a small child.  His mother is depicted in agony at this incomprehensible fate. The tableau is set in south-west Philadelphia as the Interstate 95 was being built.

 

 

 

Dancing, Pouring, Crackling, Mourning, 2015, collage, acrylic and stain on panel. 

Didier William, American born Haiti 1983

 

 

 

 

Somerset Street, Kensington, Philadelphia, 2025, mixed media 

Ashley Flynn, American born 1985 

The artist renders her life with her partner (now deceased) and their child in Kensington, Philadelphia which has hosted for decades the largest open-air drug market (now partially dismantled) on the East coast.

 

 

 

 

Guardian Vesica, 2005, unglazed stoneware

William Daley, 1925-2022

An evocation of a Christian baptismal font used to induct a new-born into the spiritual community of his or her people

 

 

 

Retablo for Stan, 2015, oil and enamel on metal

Marta Sanchez, American born 1959

A retablo is a devotional image from the Roman Catholic tradition.

 With the words in dried blood red around the head which encloses Philadelphia’s center city, the artist asks why, in the City of Brotherly Love, her friend was taken to his death.

 

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Violet Oakley, 1874-1961, American  

Woodmere holds a significant treasury of the work of Violet Oakley.

Two of her master works, the murals of ‘The Building of the House of Wisdom’ and a design in stained glass (replaced) made for a private library are permanently housed in this Hall.

 

 

 

 

Partial view of one canvas of ‘The Building of the House of Wisdom, 1901-11, oil ‘canvas surmounted by a copy of a stained glass creation, ‘Wisdom Hath Builded Her House’ designed for a private library

 

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Children

The Maguire Hall includes dedicated rooms for children’s education in art.

 

 

Iron grill looking into a space for children was made by John Rais, American born 1973

 

 

Some children, in their exuberance, have already vaulted to the building’s highest spaces: the attic galleries dedicated to photography and works on paper and to their study.

 

 

 

Child Dreams of Snakes in the Grass, c. 2005, gouache on paper

Barbara Bullock, American  born 1938

 

 

 

Third World Playground, Philadelphia, digital print, 1996

Harvey Finkle, American born 1936

 

 

 

Handstand, 2011, inkwash, acrylic, lithograph, charcoal, graphite, wallpaper, and postcard on paper

Emily Brown, American born 1943

 

 

Other children, alarmed, perhaps, at even the faintest threat of schoolwork when they hope to make art and, probably, suspicious of the word ‘Syntax’, have rolled downhill a big ball of letters to the farthest corner of the grounds.

 

 

 

Syntax, 2006, cast bronze. 

Steve Tobin, American born 1957

 

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Two rooms of this Hall have been restored to the way they were:  the dining room and the breakfast nook.

A third, the vault, has been restored to a prior function: the safe-keeping of valuables. Now it displays  jewellery.

 

Dining room 

built in the 1890’s has woodwork by Edward Maene, 1852-1931, American born Belgium

 

 

St. Francis, leaded stained glass; early 20th century probably originally installed in a church

Nicola D’Ascenzo, 1871-1954, American born Italy

 

 

Breakfast nook

has woodwork also created by Edward Maene, 1852-1931, American born Belgium

 

 

Five figures made with low fire white clay with oil paint and markers in a series named ‘Isichapuitu’, 1997-2002.

Kukuli Velarde, American born Peru 1962

These are markers of the stages of the life of the ceramicist.

 

The Bride from the series ‘Isichapuitu’, 1997-2002, low fire white clay with glaze

Kukuli Velarde, American born Peru 1962

 

 

 

Middle Passage, 2011, claro walnut.

David Washington, American born 1955

 

 

A View From the Box, 2016, plaster model cast

Christopher Smith, American, born 1958

 

 

 

Vault

The  jewellery on display is in a lineage descended from the days of William Penn when London silversmiths set up shop in Philadelphia.

After the Civil War, silversmiths turned to making jewellery also.  The first university department of metalsmithing and jewellery-making is in Philadelphia.

 

 A lady at the top of the vault steps has been waiting:

 

 

A Patient Lady, 2021, stained glass in a light box

Judith Schaecter, American born 1961

 

 

The  jewellery vault has a small vestibule, a corridor where rings are on offer; and two small rooms displaying jewellery on either side of the corridor. 

 

 

 

 

 

Urn, no date, mixed media

Vaughn Stubbs, 1946-2016, American. Woodmere Museum of Art, Philadelphia

 

 

 

The work of seven artists:

 

 

Figural brooch, c. 1990s; gold leaf over painted maple, copper, brass, sterling silver

Bruce Metcalf, American born 1949. Private loan to Woodmere in 2025

 

 

 

 

The Elk with Antlers That Never Stopped Growing, 2010, nylon, photopolymer, dye, acrylic, gypsum, flock

Emily Cobb, American, DOB?

 

 

 

Brooch, date unknown; bicycle reflector, Mardi Gras beads, plastic gems, metal decorative arrow. Unknown maker

 

 

 

Neckpiece of unknown metal and date loaned by the Mary MacFadden trust

 

 

Golden Apple, Swan Ring, and seven Decorative Rings, knotted flax linen thred.  One ring also with beads.   All rings were created between 1967 and ’68. 

  Ed Bing Lee, American born 1933

The apple (of discord) is of unknown date and has worked into it the Greek word ‘kallisti’ (to the most beautiful).  This was a word which launched the Trojan war after discord  erupted between the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite

 

 

 

 

  3D printed mannequin hands designed by Theophilus Annor proffer rings.

Theophilus Annor, Ghanaian born 1997

 

 

Ring. Details TBD

 

 

 

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Guiding spirits

Each gallery but the first has  one anchor painting with other work around it illustrative of a style or time period.

 

However, the Hall also has autonomous guiding spirits.  They called to me.  

 

 

 

Digital print of a glass (restored) created by the Nicola d’Ascenzo Studio of a design by Violet Oakley for the library of a private house.  A replica replaced the original, destroyed in an accident.

The museum noted that the stained glass asks the question:  how is wisdom found. Its answer: with a moral compass to guide a life.

 

 

 

 

Detail of Bamboo, as above

 

 

 

 

 

The Calling of Elisha, 1920, oil on canvas. 

Edith Emerson, 1888-1981, American

 

Edith Emerson, painter, curator, illustrator, writer, was Woodmere Art Museum’s first director (1940-1978). 

She made this design for a synagogue in suburban Philadelphia. Elijah on the left acknowledges Elisha on the right.  The two are to be joined forever. 

This painting is a metaphorical rendering of Edith Emerson’s relationship with Violet Oakley, her life partner.

 

 

 

The Path, oil on canvas, 1999. 

Martha Mayer Erlebacher, 1937-2013, American

 

 

 

 

Solstice Five-O, 2005, egg tempera on plywood

Sarah McEneaney, American born Germany 1955. Woodmere, Philadelphia

 

 

 

 

Frank as Sun King, 2005, mixed media

Syd Carpenter, American born 1953. Promised gift from the artist to Woodmere

 

The artist’s brother returned from his service in Desert Storm a quadriplegic.  He died of these injuries. 

The artist has dipped his army boots in bronze and placed them below this portrait of her brother as Sun King, an image which came to her when she was thinking about him. 

Around his head rotate his attributes and those things he loved about his life. The wheel, an old and ordinary and useful creation, is a grounding for her brother’s radiant spirit.

 

 

 

The Agriculturalist, 2005, oil on linen. 

Patricia Traub, American born 1947

 

 

 

Of Folate Design, 2006, mixed fiber and base metal

Ed Bing Lee, American born 1936

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Natural environment and grounds for sculpture

 

To the trees, native and non-native, planted from the mid-1800s onwards, have been added 150 native trees such as chokeberry, bayberry and pawpaw.

Several native varieties of other flora including grasses have been planted in its grounds which are also grounds for sculpture. 

 

 

A portion of the grounds in preparation before opening day

 

 

On the edge of the Hall’s land on its north side is this sculpture: a reminder of the near-extermination of the bison in North America.   And of the ever-presence of American Indians on the continent, diminished as their communities are. 

 

 

 

Bone Wall, 2000, cast bronze and buffalo bones, 2000

Steve Tobin, American born 1957

 

 

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Caretaking

 

Teri Hislop is the Clan Mother and Keeper of the Traditional Crafts of the Lenape of Pennsylvania.  A beaded necklace is on view in the vault.

 

 

Four Crows Medallion, 2024, glass bead necklace (with some light distortion)

Teri Hislop, American born 1962

 

The crow represents the Lenape nation. 

Here he is with three other crows. He is up against a fox who symbolizes European invaders. 

History remains.  The Lenape look towards a future in which they and other caretakers will take care of the earth.

 

Teri Hislop tells the prophecy of the Four Crows:

Long ago it was said that a fox  it will be loosened on the earth.

Also it was said that four crows they will come.

The first crow he flew the way of harmony with Creator.

The second crow he tried to clean it the world, but he became sick and died.

The third crow he saw him dead his brother and he hid.

The fourth crow he flew the way of harmony again with Creator.

Caretakers they will live together on the earth.

 

Teri Hislop’s representation of the intention and future of the Lenape also called to me perhaps because of its parallels with Woodmere’s work of active stewardship so that life can thrive.

 

 

 

The Gathering, 2023, steel

Linda Cunningham, American born 1939

 

 

 

 

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