Lecture to be given Sunday on Clara Weaver Parrish
Published 12:27 am Saturday, October 8, 2016
By Alaina Denean Deshazo | The Selma Times-Journal
Gery Anderson, a member of the Selma Art Guild, is giving a lecture Sunday about Selma’s own Clara Weaver Parrish at the guild from 2-4 p.m.
“I’m going to be talking about Clara Weaver Parrish, who is one of Selma’s most famous artists and most famous women,” Anderson said. “She was a cosmopolitan and ahead of her time woman. She was very much an advocate for women artists.”
Parrish was born in Dallas County in 1861 and studied art in New York and Paris, France.
“Besides working in oil and watercolor and all the different media, probably one of her most famous things is that she worked for Tiffany and Company in New York City as a designer of stained glass windows,” Anderson said.
Parrish designed stained glass windows that are currently in First Baptist Church and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, along with churches in Tuscaloosa, Greensboro and Mobile.
But Sunday, Anderson is going to have a collection of her work that hasn’t been seen in decades.
“I have over 20 of her works from private collections that we’re going to display,” Anderson said. “She has work in public displays at Sturdivant Hall and the Smitherman Building, [but] I wanted to have artwork there that people don’t get to see on a daily basis. It’s just a wonderful opportunity. We’re going to have just about everything there but stained glass, of course you can go to First Baptist Church and St. Paul’s to see that.”
Anderson said he is looking forward to the lecture, and telling people all about what Parrish offered to her community in the art world.
“I think it’s just a wonderful opportunity for the community to learn about one of its native daughters who went on and just excelled far, far beyond what anybody every thought she would,” Anderson said.
“It’s going to be wonderful. We’re hoping for a big crowd.”
The lecture is free and open to the public, but people are asked to make a donation to the Art Guild if possible. There will be a reception following the presentation.
The Art Guild is located at 508 Selma Avenue.
