About our Founder - Esther Webster
The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center is the legacy of Esther and Charles Webster. Born on a farm in Oregon's Willamette Valley, Esther knew from an early age that she wanted to be an artist. In 1926 she drove cross-country with two girlfriends to study art and seek her fortune in New York City. During the early years of the Depression she worked as a textile designer and studied at the Art Students League. There she met artists such as Arshile Gorky, Alexander Calder, and Ben Shahn.
In 1929 she married Charles Webster, scion to the founders and publishers of the Port Angeles Evening News. The young couple returned to the Peninsula to manage the News in 1934. On the remote Olympic Peninsula, Esther Webster devoted herself to painting and to stimulating a cultural climate around herself. She gained regional recognition for her painting, and in 1947 won a purchase prize from the Seattle Art Museum.
After being diagnosed with cancer in 1979, Esther Webster set in motion a plan to create the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center. The semi-circular Webster House, designed in 1951 by innovative Northwest architect Paul Hayden Kirk, sits on the crest of Beaver Hill. Sweeping vistas of the city, the harbor, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the horizons of Canada's Vancouver Island frame the artistic visions in the gallery.
In 1929 she married Charles Webster, scion to the founders and publishers of the Port Angeles Evening News. The young couple returned to the Peninsula to manage the News in 1934. On the remote Olympic Peninsula, Esther Webster devoted herself to painting and to stimulating a cultural climate around herself. She gained regional recognition for her painting, and in 1947 won a purchase prize from the Seattle Art Museum.
After being diagnosed with cancer in 1979, Esther Webster set in motion a plan to create the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center. The semi-circular Webster House, designed in 1951 by innovative Northwest architect Paul Hayden Kirk, sits on the crest of Beaver Hill. Sweeping vistas of the city, the harbor, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the horizons of Canada's Vancouver Island frame the artistic visions in the gallery.
|
|
|