Philadelphia’s Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) has tapped Kelly Shindler, formerly the director of Exhibition and Public Interpretation at the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, as its new executive director.
Shindler will replace Interim Executive Director Harry Philbrick, who filled the position in March 2023. She will begin in September.
FWM opened as a textile atelier space in 1977, founded by curator Marion Boulton Stroud. Later, in 1996, the space added “museum” to its official title. In its early days, the contemporary art museum served as an education center for printing apprentices, teaching vocational skills. In addition to the textiles produced in the workshop over the years, the museum is also home to archival material, including photographs and video, documenting textile production over the years.
Today the museum focuses on exhibitions that break with expectations, such as painter Henry Taylor’s show of works examining the racist history of tartan plaid last year, and on its vast permanent collection.
Early in her career, Shindler landed a job at Art21, the New York nonprofit and documentary producer of the PBS series Art in The Twenty-First Century. There, she helped chronicle the lives and practices of artists for a significant part of her career, an experience she said she would carry with her in her leadership at FWM.
“Telling the story of the workshop and telegraphing that to as many audiences and people as possible is a huge part of the work,” Shindler said, adding that she wants to continue Straud’s vision for FWM as a place of apprenticeship and training programs that engage the public, especially young people.
“Training young artists and technicians in Philadelphia at the workshop, alongside visiting artists and residents and the studio team, is an amazing way to ensure that those skills and opportunities are available to as broad an array of young people coming into the field as possible,” Shindler said.
