Brandywine Workshop Archives and Permanent Collection

Brandywine Workshop and Archives’ Permanent Collection includes the Visiting Artist Collection of prints made by the more than 450 artists who have been in residence at BWA to date. To date, some 1,100 prints have been published by BWA in limited editions as screen prints, woodcuts, lithographs, monographs, collages, and in mixed-media approaches. BWA’s Permanent Collection also includes more than 300 prints donated to BWA by private individuals, artists, and special collections representing the following organizations: Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York City (through Mr. Blackburn and his estate); Taller Experimental de Gráfica, Havana, Cuba; Hatch-Billops Collection, New York City; and Self Help Graphics & Art, Los Angeles, CA. Work created at Coronado Print Studio and the Serié Project, Austin, TX, is represented in digital files rather than physical prints. Prints from the Permanent Collection are exhibited in the Printed Image Gallery and Glass Lobby Gallery at BWA’s campus in Philadelphia, traveling exhibitions, and are available for loan to other institutions for exhibitions. Prints from the Visiting Artists Collection are shared by gift or purchase to establish Satellite Collections at art museums, universities, and heritage centers. Housed primarily on the first-floor of the historic landmark Firehouse Building at 730 South Broad Street, the Paper and Media Archives represents more than 50 years of collecting résumés, brochures, catalogs, photographs, 35mm color slides, audio recordings, video recordings, and digital media. Our collection of Artist Files features a compendium of handwritten and typed correspondence with artists, curators, and historians who have participated in BWA Visiting Artists Residencies or in the creation of wall murals, public service art projects, gallery-based and traveling exhibitions, and international artist exchanges, along with information regarding our growing network of Satellite Collections, established at 19 art museums, universities, and heritage centers. Honoring Ruth Fine, an accomplished artist and curator and avid supporter of BWA and its mission, the Ruth Fine Library offers numerous monographs, catalogues raisonné, exhibition catalogs, art history textbooks, art journals, and books documenting the history and development of printmaking as a fine art form. Brandywine fully funds short-term residencies for artists to produce limited edition, original prints using traditional media or a combination of traditional media with new processes based in current and emerging technologies. Each residency is documented and artists participate in the ArtistNConversation program in the gallery. To the extent possible, residency activities are video-taped for the archives.

Location

730 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19146

Contact

Michele A. Parchment, Executive Director

  • mparchment@brandywineworkshop.com