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We invite you to join us on Thursday, March 20th, for a special opportunity to see the brand new BCAT facility on Sycamore street, and preview an exhibition of paintings, prints, and fiber works from the estate of Wilhelmina Godfrey (1914–1994). Free food and beverage will be provided.
This intimate survey, "The Search for Identity", highlights the breadth of Godfrey’s artistic practice and her profound influence on the community.
In addition to her works, the exhibition features projects inspired by Godfrey’s legacy, created by students in the Youth Arts Program at BCAT.
Godfrey’s work is also the subject of the current exhibition, "I Am What I Am", on view at The Burchfield Penney Art Center, curated by Tiffany Gaines.
About Wilhelmina Godfrey
Wilhelmina Godfrey began her career as a painter and printmaker before expanding into fiber arts in the early 1960s. A passionate advocate for community arts, she dedicated herself to fostering creative expression in Western New York.
Starting in the early 1950s, she organized and taught drawing and painting classes in Buffalo at the YMCA on Michigan Avenue and St. Philip’s Episcopal Church Community Center. From 1952 to 1963, she worked as an artist for AM&A’s department store before leaving to focus on her own work. Her early paintings captured the lives of Buffalo’s East Side residents, and in 1958, after encountering a transformative exhibition in Rochester, she turned to weaving and fiber sculpture. Her textile works—abstract in style—frequently incorporated motifs influenced by African art.
Godfrey played a key role in shaping Buffalo’s arts landscape. She established the weaving program at the University at Buffalo and taught at its Creative Craft Center from 1967 to 1970. In collaboration with fellow artists Jim Pappas, Allie Anderson, and Clarence Scott, she co-founded the Langston Hughes Center for the Visual and Performing Arts (later the Langston Hughes Institute), which aimed to use the arts as a tool for social change. The institute provided children with opportunities to explore dance, drawing, painting, weaving, graphic design, and ceramics. It remained a vital institution until its closure in 2015.
Godfrey received numerous accolades throughout her career. In 1974, she was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a scholarship from Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine. She actively researched and explored the influence of African art on Black American craftspeople, presenting on topics such as “The Negro Slave Crafts Workers of North and South Carolina” at the 1979 National African American Crafts Conference Symposium.
Her legacy also includes several significant commissions, including a triptych altar painting for St. Philip’s Episcopal Church and a pentaptych altar painting for St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Buffalo. In 1990, she was honored with the Individual Artist Within the Community Award from the Buffalo & Erie County Arts Council, and that same year, she exhibited at Medaille College.
There will be an additional reception for the exhibition hosted by Art Resource in the evening on March 28th.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Buffalo Center for Arts and Technology, 1225 Main St, Buffalo, NY 14209-2111, United States,Buffalo, New York
