Curatorial Talk by Heather Murray and Book Signing by Abby Wasserman: December 10, 4-5pm The Marin Museum of Contemporary Art at Hamilton Field in Novato will present MARY TUTHILL LINDHEIM: AGENT OF CHANGE, featuring the work of the late Bay Area ceramicist, sculptor, and activist, Mary Lindheim (1912-2004). It will be the first museum exhibition of Lindheim’s work since her death, and the most comprehensive solo show ever of her work. MarinMOCA Executive Director, Heather Murray, will curate the exhibition in close collaboration with the artist’s estate and Abby Wasserman, editor and essayist of the recently published Mary Tuthill Lindheim: Art and Inspiration (Cameron and Company, 2010). The exhibition honors Lindheim, who lived in Sausalito and Bolinas for the last 65 years of her life, not only as an artist but as someone passionately dedicated to social justice. MARY TUTHILL LINDHEIM: AGENT OF CHANGE encourages the viewer to consider the historical and material importance of an artist who created with a true awareness of the impact an artist can make in and out of the formal art world. Although visitors to the exhibition will likely associate the title with Lindheim’s socio-political activism, the phrase "agent of change" also refers to the physical transformations an artist makes to her/his medium. This is particularly true in the case of a ceramic artist, who transforms earth into art and must understand and employ the chemical transformations of ceramic glazes under the heat of the kiln. Mary Tuthill Lindheim, a native of New Jersey who spent her youth in Tucson, Arizona, was especially prominent in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, years during which she worked tirelessly on behalf of Bay Area art organizations to which she belonged. An exhibiting sculptor when she began her ceramics studies in 1946, she received a scholarship for advanced research in ceramics in her second semester at the California College of Arts and Crafts. Five years later, she was elected president of the Association of San Francisco Potters. She was concurrently an active leader in the older organization San Francisco Women Artists. Sometimes her dual involvement in art and activism dovetailed, but sometimes they were at odds, challenging her ability to actively promote her own career. She would have it no other way. A passionate advocate for studio craft (which at the time was not considered a "fine art"), Lindheim contributed to the public discourse about ceramics by publishing in Craft Horizons and Ceramics Monthly. In 1958 she was one of the founding members of Designer-Craftsmen of California, and in 1966 she began years of volunteer work organizing and improving the Sausalito Art Festival. She served many times as juror for exhibitions in Marin and San Francisco as well as out of state, and taught ceramics and arts and crafts classes at the California Labor School and the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute), among others. Throughout her career she traveled and exhibited extensively, but kept her roots in the Bay Area. Her work is now in the John Magnani Memorial Collection at San Francisco State College, the Bolinas Museum, Crocker Art Museum, Oakland Museum of California, Arizona State University, and Mills College, among others. There will be a lecture by curator Heather Murray and a book signing by Abby Wasserman on Saturday, December 10, 4-5pm. MARY TUTHILL LINHDEIM: AGENT OF CHANGE is made possible in part by the generous lending of works and support of her estate, as well as lending of work by Bolinas Museum and the Crocker Art Museum. Additional support provided by the Clay and Glass Artists of California.