A 30-minute version of this interview aired on Monday, November 21, 2022 at 9:30AM on WRCR Radio 1700AM.

2022 marks the 140th birthday of Edward Hopper. On this episode, we learned about about the events celebrating this extraordinary artist, who was born in Nyack, NY.

Kathie Bennewitz, executive director of the Edward Hopper House, joined host Clare Sheridan to discuss the new exhibition at Hopper House, Edward Hopper‘s Boyhood on the Hudson River and Emerging Artistic Vision, on view now through March 26, 2023; a new documentary about Hopper, "Hopper, An American Love Story" that was screened on November 16, 2022, at Rivertown Film; and the Whitney Museum’s new exhibition Edward Hopper’s New York.

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About our guest: Kathleen Motes Bennewitz, executive director of the Edward Hopper House, has extensive experience with Connecticut museums and nonprofits and has won several awards, including the Connecticut League of History Organizations Award of Merit in 2019 and 2020 and the Leadership in History Award, the most prestigious national award given by the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH), in 2017. She holds degrees in art history from Princeton University and the University of Delaware. After curatorial positions at the Amon Carter Museum and Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, and in education at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, she served as director of exhibitions and programs at the Greenwich Historical Society (the historic site of the Cos Cob art colony) and Fairfield Museum and History Center. She has curated exhibits on American art and artists over her career and in Connecticut at the Lockwood-Matthews Mansion Museum, Norwalk Historical Society, Westport Historical Society, Westport Library, and Westport Public Art Collections. She and her husband, Scott, have twin adult daughters.

About the Hopper House exhibition: Curated by Carole Perry and Kathleen Motes Bennewitz, with Lynne Z. Bassett, this new exhibition, on view through March 26, 2023, showcases childhood drawings by the artist on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art and works from private collections, including the Arthayer R. Sanborn Hopper Collection Trust, alongside Hopper’s school notebooks and artmaking materials and artworks by family members from the Museum’s Sanborn-Hopper Family Archive. Together, these objects provide a glimpse into Hopper’s early years, the influence of his boyhood proximity to the busy waterfront and commercial district of his hometown, and insights into his life at home and his family’s support of his developing talent and ambitions.

About the documentary screening: Phil Grabsky’s new documentary, Hopper: An American Love Story, was released in October 2022 to coincide with the Whitney Museum of American Art’s exhibition Edward Hopper’s New York and the Edward Hopper House Museum’s Edward Hopper’s Hudson River Boyhood and Emerging Artistic Vision. The acclaimed film explores the enigmatic personality behind the brush, taking a deep look into Hopper’s art, his life, and his relationships, and prominently features Nyack in its opening chapter.