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Marion Boulton Stroud (Kippy Stroud; Marion Stroud Swingle)

 
Marion Boulton Stroud

American 20th-21st century curator, author, collector, philanthropist
(Pennsylvania , 3/22/1939 – 8/22/2015, Northeast Harbor, Maine)

From a 2015 tribute in ArtNet News: (Excerpt) The only child of Marion Sims Rosengarten Stroud and Morris Wistar Stroud, a highly-successful geriatrics doctor, Stroud studied at the University of Pennsylvania, earning a masters in art history. She was the Philadelphia Museum of Art‘s first director of art sales and rentals. Later, Stroud served as artistic director of Prints in Progress, an inner-city education program in Philadelphia. Family money enabled her to pursue a career in art philanthropy. In 1977, Stroud founded Philadelphia’s Fabric Workshop, an experimental space for artists working in textiles and related mediums. The goal, she told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1992, was “to explore, to take liberties, to be a studio and laboratory of new design, unhampered by rules and precedents.” In 1996, Stroud rechristened the organization the Fabric Workshop and Museum, expanding the institution to include an exhibition space for its growing contemporary art collection. She organized shows that toured the country and the world and published dozens of books on art and artists. Mostly, she funded all these activities out of her own pocket, giving preference to women artists and artists of diverse backgrounds. Over the years, the Fabric Workshop hosted and commissioned projects from important artists such as Marina Abramović, Claes Oldenburg, Faith Ringgold, Louise Bourgeois, and Roy Lichtenstein, among hundreds of others. In a statement, the Fabric Workshop and Museum lauded its founder as “one of the art world’s true visionaries,” noting that “for more than four decades, Kippy was a curator, author, editor, educator, administrator and force for positive social change, all at the same time and always at the highest level of achievement. The board and staff of FWM are making plans not only to maintain her legacy but to advance it, as we know she wished.” Nearly three decades ago, Stroud opened the Acadia Summer Arts Program on Maine’s Mount Desert Island. This was perhaps an inevitable extension of the hospitality she extended to friends, who often visited her there. Popularly known as Kamp Kippy, the program fostered the creative pursuits of artists, curators, museum directors, and others in careers in the arts. Jennifer Grosse, chief curator of the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, told artnet News of the camp, which she visited annually from the very beginning of the project. Gross was a longtime friend of Stroud’s, and stayed with her in Maine only three weeks ago. “She really did create this fabulous community of artists and curators and museum professionals that would never otherwise have been able to know each other’s work and been able to support and network with each other.” A member of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art, ArtTable, and the American Crafts Council, Stroud was a recipient of Maine’s Skowhegan Governor’s Award for outstanding service to art and artists. Among her other contributions to the art world, Stroud was a trustee at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as chair of its prints, drawings, and photographs committee." She was married to Clinton Swingle, who died in 2013.

4 objects

New Material As New Media (A The Fabric Workshop and Museum Publication)

2002
paper on hardcover book
Archival Collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton "Kippy" Stroud Foundation
2018.10.337
 

On the Wall: Wallpaper by Contemporary Artists (A The Fabric Workshop and Museum Publication with R.I.S.D.)

2003
paper on softcover book
Archival Collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton "Kippy" Stroud Foundation
2018.10.338
 

Three Stories (An A.S.A.P. Publication)

2008
paper on hardcover book,
Archival Collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton "Kippy" Stroud Foundation
2018.10.350
 

Dogs on Rocks (An A.S.A.P. Publication)

2008
photographic book on hardback covers
Archival Collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton "Kippy" Stroud Foundation
2018.10.395