This Spring and Fall, the Graycliff Conservancy is hosting a special lecture series, “The Woman is the Client: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Women Patrons”.
The series is designed to illuminate Wright’s residential designs for female clients over the course of his long career. In the 20th century, a time in architectural/social history when far more men than women commissioned their own dwellings, several of Wright’s most important designs (including Graycliff itself) were designed for female clients. They range from Wright’s earliest designs (for Wright’s aunts, Nell and Jane Lloyd Jones, in Wisconsin,) magnificent homes from Wright’s Prairie period (roughly 1896- 1909) and an intentionally modest home from Wright’s Usonian period (roughly 1936-1947) What were the differences, if any, between Wright’s designs for male or female clients? What impact did commissions by women clients have at various cross roads in Wright’s career? What kinds and types of buildings did Wright design for women patrons, at a time (not so different from today) when few women commissioned architects?
The first lecture,May 8 is “Affordable Dreams: The Goetsch Winkler Home” given by Dr. Diane Tepfer.
Next, on October 2, Donald Hallmark, curator, the Dana-Thomas House will speak on, unsurprisingly, the Dana-Thomas House.
October 16, author Mary Jane Hamilton will speak on Wright’s Hillside Home School and the Romeo and Juliet windmill, commissioned by his aunts.
Admission for each lecture is $10 (free for members of the Greycliff Conservancy) and will be held at Babeville (formerly The Church) in downtown Buffalo. Reservations are not required.
For more information, call (716) 947-9217 or e-mail graycliff@verizon.net