Syd Carpenter’s ceramic sculptures are in many museum collections, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy and the Renwick in Washington, DC. Carpenter’s muscular and biomorphic forms pull together recognizable imagery — chains, fences, flowers, and a series of farms based on small family farms in the South. Considered together, her work is a loose narrative that suggests personal and black history. Syd, who is a Pew Fellow (1992) and Tyler MFA chairs the Studio Art Department of Swarthmore College. In our podcast, she talks about what fuels her art, and about her experience working with a community in Ghana, and her recent trip to Georgia to visit African American farms.
This episode is edited by Peter Crimmins. The music is by Eric Biondo. Thanks to the Knight Foundation for helping us get the ball rolling on this project. Thanks also to J-Lab‘s Enterprise Reporting Fund and William Penn Foundation for additional support and to our partner WHYY NewsWorks.
