Syd Carpenter (born 1953) is an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

and a retired professor of studio art. She is known for her ceramic and sculpture work, which explores African-American farming and gardening. She has received multiple fellowships, including a Pew Fellowship and an

NEA Fellowship The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

, and her work is currently in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection and the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

's collection.

Early life and education

Carpenter was born in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

in 1953. She earned her Bachelors of Fine Art in 1974 and Master of Fine Art in 1976 from the

Tyler School of Art and Architecture The Tyler School of Art and Architecture is part of Temple University, a large, urban, public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Tyler currently enrolls about 1,350 undergraduate students and about 200 graduate st ...

Career

In 1991, Carpenter began teaching at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...

as a Professor of Studio Art, where she would teach until her retirement in the fall of 2022, resulting in the college no longer offering ceramic classes. At Swarthmore, she was appointed to the Endowed Peggy Chan Professorship of Black Studies in January 2021. In 1992, she was awarded the

Pew Fellowship in the Arts The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is a nonprofit organization, nonprofit grantmaking organization and knowledge-sharing hub for arts and culture in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US established in 2005. In 2008, Paula Marincola was named the first ...

. In 2014, Carpenter's exhibit "“Syd Carpenter: More Places of Our Own" was one of the two exhibits that the

African American Museum in Philadelphia The African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) is notable as the first museum funded and built by a municipality to help preserve, interpret and exhibit the heritage of African Americans. Opened during the 1976 Bicentennial celebrations, ...

received a $50,000 award from the

Knight Foundation The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also known as the Knight Foundation, is an American non-profit foundation that provides grants for journalism, communities, and the arts. The organization was founded as the Knight Memorial Education ...

to enhance. In 2021, Carpenter and artist Steve Donegan, designed and constructed "

hugel Hugel & Fils is a winery in Riquewihr, Alsace, France. Hugel & Fils is one of the major producers of Alsace wine, and has been an important force in the Alsace wine industry in its developments during the second half of the 20th century. Hugel & ...

mounds" at Woodmere Museum as environmental art pieces. From January–May 2022, her exhibit ''Earth Offerings: Honoring the Gardeners,'' inspired by the legacy of Black farmers, was displayed in the

Rowan University Rowan University is a public research university in Glassboro, New Jersey, with a medical campus in Stratford and medical and academic campuses in Camden. Founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School on a site donated by 107 residents, the scho ...

Art Gallery. In May 2022, her piece,
Mary Lou Furcron
'' was included in the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

exhibit, “This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World." In November 2022, Carpenter was named one of Anonymous Was a Woman (AWAW) 2022 award recipients, receiving $25,000. On December 16, 2022, Carptenter appeared in the award-winning documentary series,

Craft in America Craft in America, Inc. is an American arts nonprofit organization known for its television series, also titled "''Craft in America"'', which showcases the world of craftsmanship across the United States. History Craft in America is a 501(c)(3) ...

episode "Home,” alongside artists Biskakone Greg Johnson,

Wharton Esherick Wharton Esherick (July 15, 1887 – May 6, 1970) was an American artist and designer. An artistic polymath, he worked in a wide variety of art media including painting, printmaking, and sculpture. His design works range from architectural int ...

, and Sim Van der Ryn.

Collections

Carpenter's work is held in the permanent collections of the

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, and the

, among other institutions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Syd Living people 1953 births Pew Fellows in the Arts Artists from Pittsburgh Swarthmore College faculty 20th-century African-American artists 20th-century American ceramists American women ceramists 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American women sculptors Ceramists from Pennsylvania 21st-century African-American artists 21st-century American ceramists 21st-century American sculptors 21st-century American women sculptors Fellows of the American Craft Council