Anita Lynn Wetzel (1949 - 2021) was an American artist and co-founder of the Women's Studio Workshop.

Biography

Wetzel was born on May 27, 1949, in Sauquoit, New York. She studied at the

State University of New York at New Paltz The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz or New Paltz) is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It traces its origins to the New Paltz Classical School, a secondary institution founded in 1828 and reorganized as an a ...

. In 1974 she co-founded the Women's Studio Workshop (WSW) in Rosendale, New York along with fellow artists

Ann Kalmbach Ann Kalmbach (b. 1950) is an American artist and co-founder of the Women's Studio Workshop. Biography Kalmbach was born in 1950 in Rochester, New York. She studied at the State University of New York at New Paltz and the Rochester Institute o ...

Tatana Kellner Tatana "Tana" Kellner (born 1950) is an American artist known for her artist's book works and as a founder of Women's Studio Workshop. Early life and education Kellner is the daughter of Holocaust survivors. She was born in Czechoslovakia and ...

, and Barbara Leoff Burge. Wetzel's interest in paper arts influenced WSW's focus on

papermaking Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is made using industrial machinery, while handmade paper survives as a speciali ...

and artist's books. The workshop is still in existence and still publishes artists books. She worked at WSW until 1980, when she departed for New York City, returning in 1995 where she served as director of development until 2017. She died on March 14, 2021, in Rosendale, New York. Her work is in the collection of the Hudson Valley Visual Art Collections Consortium,

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, the

MassArt Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a Public university, public art school, college of visual art, visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation’s oldest art schools, the ...

Library, the Smithsonian Libraries Artists' Books collection, and the library of

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...

. In 2021 WSW held a retrospective of her work entitled ''Walking Lightly, With Intention''. The same year WSW created the Anita Wetzel Residency Grant.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wetzel, Anita 1949 births 2021 deaths Artists from New York (state) 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists Women book artists Book artists People from Sauquoit, New York