The Historical Society of Woodstock is presenting their opening exhibition of the season, “Making Her Mark: 50 Women Artists of the Historic Woodstock Art Colony,” on Saturday, July 12, 2025, at 20 Comeau Drive in Woodstock, NY, with an opening reception on Saturday, July 12 at 3 pm.
Curated by Bruce Weber, historian of American art and board member of the Historical Society, “Making Her Mark” celebrates the work of 50 women artists who were active in the historic Woodstock Art Colony. The paintings, drawings and prints are drawn from the permanent collection of the Historical Society.
The display ranges from women who arrived during the first decades of the 20th century as students at the Art Student League’s Woodstock School of Landscape Painting to those who came in the wake of the end of the Second World War through the 1970s.
In style the pictures range from the Tonalist aesthetic promulgated by the League’s first school here from 1906 to 1922, to the
diverse landscape, figurative and abstract styles that evolved around the time of the League’s return in 1947 through their departure in 1979, and into the 1980s.
Exhibition curator Bruce Weber authored the exhibition catalogue which features a brief essay on the subject and biographies of all the artists. He will be giving gallery talks on the exhibition at 2 pm on Sunday July 20th and Saturday August 30th.
On Saturday August 9th at 2 pm the panel discussion “Women Speaking About Women Artists of the Historic Woodstock Art Colony,” will also take place at the Historical Society.
The moderator for the panel is Deborah Heppner. Panelists include Jenne Currie (daughter of Ethel Magafan), Melinda Rohland Meister (great niece of Caroline Speare Rohland), Karen King (great granddaughter through marriage of Florence Ballin Cramer), and Paula Nelson (artist and friend of Mara Angeloch, Nancy Summers and others).
The group of women artists represented in this exhibition who arrived in the first two decades of the twentieth century include Josephine Barnard, Marion Bullard, Florence Ballin Cramer, Dorothy Greenwood Ives, Ilonka Karasz, Julia Leaycraft, Hester Miller Murray, Pamela Hart Vinton Brown Ravenal, Caroline Speare Rohland, Zulma Steele, Eva Watson-Schutze, and Elizabeth Bush Woiceske.
In the 1920s and 1930s the arrivals include Peggy Bacon, Agnes Baskin Bierhals, Lucille Blanch, Reeves Brace, Jo Cantine, Gwen Davies, Mary Earley, Aline Fruhauf, Eugenie Gershoy, Grace Greenwood, Marion Greenwood, Rosella Hartman, Wilna Hervey, Florence Tuttle Hubbard, Jane Jones, Georgina Klitgaard, Doris Lee, Martha Levy, Nan Mason, Eugenie McEvoy, Mary Dufresne Smith, Dorothy Varian, Margaret Chapin Wetterau, and Madeline Schiff Wiltz.
Arrivals in the period from the 1940s through the 1970s include Mara Angeloch, Louise Brokenshaw, Helen Gerardia, Carolyn Haberlin, Agnes Hart, Eleanor Lockspeiser, Ethel Magafan, Sally Michel, Norma Morgan, Barbara Neustadt, Altha Spalding Odell, Nancy Summers, Jean Wrolsen, and the recently deceased Beryl Goss.
A flock of New York City public school teachers spent summers in Woodstock, including Florence Tuttle Hubbard who arrived in the early 1920s. Following World War II, Odell taught art at high schools in Saugerties and Kingston.
The exhibition will run through September 14 and is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 pm to 5 pm. Admission is free.
The Historical Society of Woodstock was founded in 1929 by a group of artists, writers, academics, and local citizens.
In addition to the exhibition space, which is located at the historic Eames House on Comeau Drive in the center of Woodstock, the Historical Society has an extensive archive consisting of paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, textiles, photographs, books, manuscripts, correspondence, documents, film/sound recordings, and antique tools. The archive serves as a resource for a wide range
of exhibitions, public programming, and research.
Illustrations, from above: An untitled painting by Doris Lee; and Georgina Klitgaard’s “Village Church.”
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