{"id":347456,"date":"2026-07-21T16:39:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347456\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T16:39:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:39:53","slug":"historic-art-exhibit-spotlights-women-printmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347456\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic art exhibit spotlights women printmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

New at the St. Petersburg Museum of History, Plate to Paper: Women Printmakers in Pinellas is an exhibition of works by 14 artists, all of them local or with work\/study ties to the bay area, who advanced the art of printmaking to the next level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stories are really varied,\u201d said exhibit curator Ashley Burke. \u201cAnd I wanted to show how varied that story is. And the work really speaks for itself. It takes a high level of skill to master, which is really impressive when you understand what it takes to do printmaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Polly Knipp Hill. Photo: St. Petersburg Museum of History.<\/p>\n

Historically, the grande dame of Pinellas printmaking was Polly Knipp Hill (1900-1990), a native New Yorker who worked as a commercial artist before continuing her studies in France, at the Acad\u00e9mie Colarossi and the Acad\u00e9mie de la Grande Chaumi\u00e8re.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFlorida Military Academy,\u201d Polly Knipp Hill. Est. 1940s or \u201950s.<\/p>\n

She and her husband, oil painter and muralist George Snow Hill, landed in St. Petersburg in 1933. They were immediately embraced by The Art Club of St. Petersburg, which exhibited their work, and Polly became known for her etchings and prints.<\/p>\n

Together, the couple established Hill Studio, in their Lakewood Estates home, where Polly taught etching and printmaking.<\/p>\n

Her work is in the permanent collections of the Georgia Museum of Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York); the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Rhode Island School of Design Museum; the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum; and the University Art Collection, at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe really is an impressive figure, but little is known and talked about with her,\u201d explained Burke. \u201cSo she was the starting point for this exhibition. But then it brought in some of these other ideas, of why printmaking was something that she worked toward, and then really looking at women\u2019s roles in printmaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

George Snow Hill created, through President Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s Public Works Administration, colorful murals for the city\u2019s U.S. Coast Guard station, the Garden Cafeteria, the Gulfport Casino, the Clearwater Municipal Auditorium, Tampa\u2019s Peter O. Knight Airport and other locations around Florida.<\/p>\n

He also painted a pair of murals for the main staircase in St. Petersburg\u2019s City Hall. One, which depicted Black minstrels entertaining white picnickers under a thatch-covered table on Pass-a-Grille Beach, was cut from the wall in 1966, in an act of civil disobedience by Black activists, who found it offensive.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Vintage St. Pete: George Snow Hill and \u2018Pass-a-Grille\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Included in Plate to Paper is an etching, by Polly Knipp Hill, of a similar scene. The minstrels in her version, however, are far less stereotypical and cartoon-like.<\/p>\n

Burke theorizes that the couple worked in tandem on the circa-1940 pieces.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPicnic at the Beach,\u201d c. 1940 by Polly Knipp Hill. Printed by the Dunedin Fine Art Center from Hill\u2019s original copper etching plate, which is also on display.<\/p>\n

The Hills\u2019 archive of work, and materials, was donated to the Museum of History in 2021. \u201cEverybody has the concept that in the \u201880s and \u201890s we become this huge arts mecca in the southeast,\u201d museum director Rui Farias told the\u00a0Catalyst\u00a0in a 2025 interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I do our little trolley tours, I ask who\u2019s lived here fewer than five years. And most people raise their hand. People who live here now think that this whole art scene is fairly new. But it\u2019s really not.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Contemporary work by Kaitlin Crockett.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Burke said, the city\u2019s art scene was active long before the SHINE Mural Festival was a glimmer in someone\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n

The artists represented are Martha Ensign Johnson, Leepa-Ratner Museum of Art director Christine Renc-Carter, St. Pete College Professor Emerita Marjorie Greene Graff, Eckerd College art professor Margaret Rigg, Sherry Smith, Ruth Philipon, Suzanne Benton, Betsy Lagana Bluangtook, Mary-Helen Horne, Neverne Covington, Kaitlin Crockett, Rebekah Lazaridis and Holly Bird.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you look through the exhibition, there are so many different types of techniques and ways to use the medium. I think the show expresses the capabilities of the medium, which are vast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plate to Paper: Women Printmakers in Pinellas is on view at the St. Petersburg Museum of History, 335 2nd Avenue NE. Visit the website<\/a> for additional information.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Bill DeYoung.<\/p>\n

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