Our History

The year Mary Yeiser was born her grandfather, David Yeiser Sr., then Mayor of Paducah, constructed a building that became known as the Market House, located in the heart of downtown. It was 1905, and no one could have foreseen that Mary, like her grandfather, would also become a builder of a sort.

From the time she was a small child, her interest in art was evident. Her weekly art classes at St. Mary’s Academy led to a pursuit of art studies throughout her life. She studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Kentucky, where she was fortunate enough to have John Rothenstein (who later became director of London’s Tate Gallery) as her Art History instructor. Although her interest in art was primary, her studies with Rothenstein led to a fascination with buildings and architecture. She would later recall that one of the most important things that she learned in his classes was “load bearing and concentrated weight in building structures.” As one of Rothenstein’s pupils, she was encouraged to study in London, but she left for Paris in 1928, and continued to attend classes at different academies. Her studies in Europe included a tour of Italy, and a class in St. Tropez with the noted German painter Hans Hoffman.

She returned from Europe in 1929 to find the Depression had begun to take its toll on the job market. In keeping with her desire to immerse herself in the arts, she chose to live in New York City, where she took clerical and sales jobs in addition to art-related positions to support herself.

It was in New York City that she attended an exhibit by students from a recently established school of tapestry weaving. She was so taken by the beauty of the tapestries that she contacted the school to discuss private lessons. She became acquainted with the school’s founder, Geza Gilbert Foldes, newly arrived from Hungary. During the course of their discussion, he told her that he wanted to write a book on tapestry weaving, particularly French tapestries, but was hindered by what he referred to as his “Hungarian English.” Mary and Foldes quickly worked out a deal; she would trade her writing skills for tapestry weaving lessons. Due to the ongoing difficulties of the Depression, their collaboration was to be short-lived. However, Mary Yeiser kept the manuscript, and brought it with her when she returned to Paducah. She never forgot the wonderful and beautiful techniques she had learned from Foldes, and in 1997 she received a Kentucky Arts Council Grant to make a video and handbook illustrating his techniques.

After returning to Paducah, Mary taught at Paducah Junior College (now Western Kentucky Community and Technical College) from 1940-1942 and then from 1953-1971. The frustration of having nothing to show her students but reproductions and slides brought home the realization that the visual arts were poorly represented in western Kentucky. As a lover of textiles, Mary was especially disappointed that the classroom materials available to her were not only lacking in color and clarity, but there was no way that textures could be accurately represented.

Mary and a few friends, Virginia Black and Robert Evans, among others, decided that something had to be done about the lack of visual arts in the area, and in 1957 formed the Paducah Art Guild. Founded as a non-profit center, the Guild’s mission was to promote the creation and appreciation of the visual arts, and to become a city art museum. The first meeting was held at the old Carnegie Public Library on Broadway, and consisted of five dues-paying members (at $20.00 each), and one patron (for $100.00) to give it a start-up budget of $200.00. With the first funds, freestanding wallboards were purchased for mounting the exhibits. The Guild’s first exhibit was supplied by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, and consisted of American woodcarving from the National Gallery of Art Index of American Design. Mary Yeiser also convinced many artists to lend pieces of their work for exhibits, and a piece was purchased from each exhibit. This practice would continue, and became the permanent collection of the Guild.

After a devastating fire destroyed Carnegie Library, the city of Paducah offered the Guild a space in the Market House building, and on March 4, 1963, the Market House became the Guild’s new home. How appropriate that, 58 years after her grandfather built it, the art center founded by Mary Yeiser found its permanent home there.

As the membership grew and the Guild flourished, it was decided that a name change was necessary. The members felt that the word “guild” carried connotations of exclusivity and even secrecy, as had the craft guilds of old Europe. It was decided that an art center would better suit the original mission of the guild, and in 1990 the organization became the Yeiser Art Center in homage to its founder.

Since its inception, the center has displayed more than 350 exhibits by established and emerging artists, featuring quality works of art by artists working in a variety of media, techniques, and subject matter. The exhibitions are produced by the Center, acquired through traveling services, or on loan from other museums. In 2007, the Yeiser will come full circle by once again hosting shows from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Service.

The Yeiser Art Center’s permanent collection, begun so painstakingly piece by piece, now consists of American, European, African and Asian art, including work by such artists as Henri Matisse, Mary Cassatt, Salvador Dali, Francisco Goya, Maurice Utrillo, Annie Albers, Gregory Gorby, and Kees van Dongen. The collection also contains the work of many outstanding regional artists, including Avery Crounse, Warren Farr, Jerry Watson, and Mary Yeiser.