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Cheltenham Art Center today |
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History |
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In 1940, Gladys Wagner, Tobeleah
Wechsler, and Helen Foster founded the Art Center with the goal of
building a supportive community "for people to work together
and talk together about art." The three women discovered the delicate
landscape paintings of a local artist being sold for twenty-five and
fifty cents in a drugstore on Central Avenue.
The artist was William T. Johanns, a graduate of the Academy of Fine
Arts, a tree surgeon and a long time resident of Cheltenham village.
The story of William Johanns suggests that following a most unhappy
love affair, he retired to his rented attic apartment to paint and
became known as a recluse. When he died alone and unremarked, his
paintings were given to the drugstore or anyone who wanted. Gladys
realized that there were artists who were unaware of each other even
in such a small community. The three women then resolved that no local
artist should be forced to work in isolation.
They called a meeting on September 2, 1940, attended by eight people
- all women - to plan an exhibition of the artists of Cheltenham Township
in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of Cheltenham Village. The
exhibition was held twelve days later on September 14, 1940. After
several meetings, the Art Center was incorporated and
officially born on November 21, 1940, a gestation period of just eighty
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Mission |
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The founders were dedicated to
ending the isolation of the artist from his/her community by providing
a place for people to share artistic and social interests. The Art
Center's goal progressed to include making art an integral part of
the lives of the people in the area and to support the artists who
live and work in the vicinity. Today, the Art Center nurtures the
creative spirit of the community through instruction in
the visual and dramatic arts, exhibitions and theater performances.
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First Home |
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Support for the creation of the
Art Center came from the Cheltenham Township Commissioners, who agreed
to lease a historic building for a nominal fee. An old mill house
at the corner of Ashbourne Road and Rowland Avenue, previously the
Ames Shovel and Tool Company and historically part of a land grant
from William Penn to his daughter, was the Art Center's first home.
In January 1941, studios for painting, sculpture and clay were established
among the debris of shovels and dirt. In 1942, ceramist and painter,
Marion Kochey, rescued the Center from a pressing space crisis and
began teaching children's and clay classes in her small stone house
adjacent to the mill house. |
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Final Home |
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In 1953, CCA moved to its present
home the neighboring Cheltenham Elementary School. The building was
built in 1883 as a replacement for the 1795 Milltown School and an
expansion was done in 1893 and a second floor added in 1903. Named
for pioneering children's education George K. Heller, it is the of
the first public school in Cheltenham township and the oldest school
in the state of Pennsylvania in continuous use on the same site. In
2001, the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission honored the
Art Center by granting the building a spot on the National Register
of Historic Places. |
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The Art Center Today: Education, Exhibitions and Theater Performances
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Since its founding CCA has served as a venue for high quality classes,
exhibitions and theater programs that have promoted regional artists
and showcased the work of children, adults and outstanding faculty
in our community, and continues to do so today. At CCA we believe
that the arts can offer to all ages a means to broaden their horizons,
learn new skills and explore new ways of seeing and viewing the world.
It is our goal to provide an environment that is conducive to teaching
these skills and to nurture the creative process.
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