Meet the Press: Introducing Our New Digital Content Manager

There’s a new addition to the WSW team, and she’s bringing her fresh voice to our blog. Kathryn Scudier joined us in early August from Ohio, where she studied art and art history at Wittenberg University and spent 13 months working as assistant curator for a small art museum.

“A lot of what I did focused on audience engagement,” she says, “in an area that really needed cultural resources.” She was most engaged in working with artists in the community, talking to them and working with them to make their art accessible to anyone who walks in, from exhibition-chaser to someone who doesn’t see art daily. “Museums are still seen as a luxury,” she says. “There has been and is a huge shift in the art world to change that.”

Women’s Studio Workshop has been a name in the back of her mind for some time. One night, spotting our call for Digital Content Manager applications, Kathryn knew that here was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up. “I was really attracted to the fact that there are so many residencies and internships, [WSW] provides opportunities for artists in all steps of their careers.” Given our commitment to women artists, she feels she’s giving justice to her art and art history education. “In a lot of the work I did for school it was just awful to see how women were treated compared to the men,” Kathryn says. “It’s really heartbreaking, and you can still see it in our attitudes today. So I was drawn to this culture.”

As it is for our many of artists, coming to WSW has also been a learning opportunity for Kathryn. “A lot of art making gets pushed out of canonical art history, where European oil painting is the foundation.” Working with so many artists, across so many mediums, is a chance to delve deeper into new understandings of artistic practice. Printmaking, papermaking, book-making – all of these are exciting territories to explore, and who better to lead the way than the artists themselves?

First and foremost, Kathryn sees the blog as a unique service for the WSW alumnae network. “We’re documenting what the artists are doing, where their head is at with their project and with how they’re making art in this moment.”  A day in Kathryn’s life might find her working at the computer one minute and roaming the studios the next, camera in hand.  With at least one artist in every studio, if not more depending on the day, there are plenty of creative moments to capture.  

From daily potluck lunches to staff painting parties at our new building, she’s been most struck by the sense that all work here is teamwork. “It’s really intimate,” she says. “You don’t always get that constant sense of community in the workplace. Here it’s everywhere.”

“Places like this really need to exist. You can do a lot in the arts: teaching, art handling, installing, gallery management, and so on. Somewhere like this that provides first step opportunities and a place to grow professionally, it’s really a special place,” she says.  “You don’t find a lot of places like this.”

We agree, and we’re so excited to welcome Kathryn and hand over the proverbial digital reins.

Keep an eye on our blog to see what she and our artists have in store!