The Plastic Club

The Plastic Club is an art organization located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1897 as an arts organization for women to promote collaboration and members' works, partly in response to the Philadelphia Charcoal Club, an exclusively male arts club.[1] The Plastic Club is one of the oldest art clubs in the United States. It is located on the 200 block of Camac Street, the "Little Street of Clubs" that was a cultural destination in the early 1900s.[2] Since 1991, the club's membership also includes men.[3]

Plastic Club members in their early Chestnut Street studio, ca. 1901

History

The Plastic Club was founded by art educator Emily Sartain. The first President was the etcher Blanche Dillaye.[4] The motto of the club was taken from a poem by Theophile Gautier:

"All passes--Art alone Enduring-stays to us. The bust outlasts the throne The coin--Tiberius."[5]

Early members included Elenore Plaisted Abbott, Paula Himmelsbach Balano, Cecilia Beaux, Fern Coppedge, 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.[3][6] 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.[6]

The club offered art classes, social events, and exhibitions. Its annual masquerade party was called "the Rabbit."[3][6] In 1918, the club was involved in the founding of the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy,[7] reflecting the connection between occupational therapy and the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States between the Civil War and World War I.[8]

In 1991 the organization opened its membership to include men. During the 1990s the club also sought to attract art students, offering free membership to two recent graduates a year.[3]

The Plastic Club building at 247 South Camac Street was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places in 1962.[9]

Noted past members

The Plastic Club has identified the following noted past members:[10]

References

  1. ↑ Van Hook, Bailey (2009-01-01). "The Early Career of Violet Oakley, Illustrator". Woman's Art Journal 30 (1): 29–38.
  2. ↑ "Little Clubs On A Wooden Street | Hidden City Philadelphia". hiddencityphila.org. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
  3. 1 2 3 4 The Plastic Club. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  4. ↑ Croly, Jane Cunningham (1898). The History of the Women's Club Movement in America. New York: Henry G. Allen & Co. p. 1049. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  5. ↑ Ruedig, Reagan Baydoun (2007). The Plastic Club of Philadelphia: A Site Management Study and Building Analysis (PDF). p. 4.
  6. 1 2 3 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.
  7. ↑ Philadelphia in the world war, 1914-1919. New York :. 1922-01-01.
  8. ↑ Peloquin, S. (2005). The 2005 Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lecture-Embracing our methods, reclaiming our heart. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 59, 611–625
  9. ↑ Ruedig, Reagan Baydoun (2007). The Plastic Club of Philadelphia: A Site Management Study and Building Analysis (PDF). p. 9.
  10. ↑ "Noted Past Members". The Plastic Club. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Ladies of Newport". 2015rrcus.org. 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2016-03-03.

Further reading

External links

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