The papers of stained glass artist and educator Judith Schaechter measure 14.3 linear feet and 35.3 Gigabytes and date from circa 1900s-2019, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1960s-2019. The collection documents Schaechter's career through biographical material, correspondence, professional files, writings, printed material, photographic material, and artwork, and includes records in digital format.
The collection is arranged in seven series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1969-2019 (0.3 Linear feet; Box 1, 13; 0.936 Gigabytes: ER0001-ER0002)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1974-2019 (4.4 Linear feet; Boxes 1-4, 20-21; 0.027 Gigabytes: ER0003-ER006)
Series 3: Professional Files, circa 1982-2019 (0.9 Linear feet: Box 5, 13; 0.624 Gigabytes: ER0007-ER0013, ER0056-ER0057)
Series 4: Writings, circa 1973-2019 (0.9 Linear feet: Boxes 5-6; 12.4 Gigabytes: ER0014-ER0026)
Series 5: Printed Material, circa 1973-2019 (3.8 Linear feet: Boxes 6-9, 14-15, OV19; 17.1 Gigabytes: ER0027-ER0042)
Series 6: Photographic Material, circa 1900s-2019 (1.8 Linear feet: Boxes 10, 12, 16; 4.17 Gigabytes: ER0043-ER0055)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1965-2015 (2.2 Linear feet: Boxes, 10-11, 15, 17-18, 22)
Biographical / Historical:
Judith Schaechter (1961-) is a Philadelphia-based stained glass artist and educator.
Schaechter was born in Gainesville Florida and her family soon relocated to Newton Massachusetts where her father Moselio Schaechter was a microbiology professor at Tufts University. She exhibited artistic talent and imagination that was nurtured at an early age, and Schaechter worked on developing her art in high school. She received her bachelor's degree from Rhode Island School of Design in 1983. During her undergraduate work she discovered the glass program and completed her undergraduate work there.
While her methods of art production may be centuries old, Schaecter infuses contemporary themes in her pieces that resonate with the grotesque imagery that appears in the Medieval and Renaissance motifs that she emulates. In addition to lending her works as cover artwork to literary and music artists, Schaecter also played in bands such as Ken throughout the 1990s and recorded her own music. In this way the punk and D.I.Y. ethos resonates with all of her creative endeavors, despite the fact that her works take many hours to create. Skillful draftsmanship is at the core of her artistic practices and her more recent work incorporates computer illustration as well as animation.
Schaechter served as an adjunct professor in the Crafts Department at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Adjunct Faculty at the New York Academy of Art in New York, New York. She has also taught workshops and classes at Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, Penland School of Crafts, Toyama Institute of Glass (Toyama, Japan) and Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, among others.
An early career milestone was achieved with her stained glass artwork appearing on the cover of The New Yorker in 1993. She showed her work Bigtop Flophouse Bedspins in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. Schaechter's artwork is featured in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Hermitage Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Corning Museum of Glass, and the Renwick Gallery, among numerous other public and private collections.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 2019 and 2021 by Judith Schaechter.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. This personal correspondence series is access restricted; written permission is required. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Stained glass artists -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this
Sculptors -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this
Educators -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this