Elena M. Sarni

Mid-century Women Printmakers: Virginia Lee Burton and the Folly Cove Designers Elena M. Sarni

The history of the Folly Cove Designers (1941-1969)--one of America's longest-running artist collectives--is explored through their work.

The Folly Cove Designers were a mid-20th-century group of American artists block printing in Gloucester, Massachusetts, on Cape Ann. Their blocks were carved into linoleum, and then primarily printed on fabric.

Through historical ephemera and photographs, Sarni explores the history, the work, and the group dynamics of the Folly Cove Collective, through its founder, renowned children's book author and illustrator Virginia Lee Burton Demetrios (of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel fame).