A Room of their Own: Still-Life Sculpture and the Creative Interior
May 1 – October 18, 2026
Curator: Amrut Mishra
A Room of Their Own takes Virginia Woolf’s classic feminist text, A Room of One’s Own (1928) as an invitation to consider how we pursue contemplative and creative work. In her essay, Woolf’s semi-autobiographical protagonist meanders between gender-segregated academic settings, in search of a space within which to research and write. Ejected from the “Oxbridge” men’s library, scolded for stepping on a grass field reserved for men of letters, invited to a sumptuous luncheon at the university for men and a meager supper at the local college for women—wherever she goes, Woolf is challenged by a vast, gendered disparity in resources. Ultimately, she poses the question: “What conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art?”
A Room of Their Own stages a late eighteenth-century style ladies’ writing desk, in diorama, as a study within the Museum’s research library. Comprised primarily of sculptural still-life works in wood, the display demonstrates an uncanny similitude where prosaic items like an envelope or lunch bag appear as exquisitely crafted objects imbued with creative labor.
Assembled on the ladies’ writing desk, these artworks prompt reflection on the conditions that enable creativity: shelter, physical and mental nourishment, societal structures, and time for leisure. By highlighting art objects reminiscent of domestic life, A Room of Their Own encourages viewers to ruminate on the objects and spaces that surround them during their own creative moments.
Teresa Audet, Humaira Abid, Kate Davidson and Charlotte Holt, Marceil DeLacy, BA Harrington, Michelle Holzapfel, Daphne Osolnik and Rude Osolnik, Merryll Saylan
A Room of Their Own is generously supported by the Cambium Giving Society of the Museum for Art in Wood, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Bresler Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, William Penn Foundation, and Windgate Foundation.