exhibiting Artist

Belle-Pilar Fleming & Bri Murphy

Opening April 1 2026

Dennis Ritter

Opening April 9 2026 

Exhibiting location

Stenton Historic House

Stenton is one of the earliest, best-preserved, and most authentic historic houses in Philadelphia. It was completed in 1730 as a country-seat plantation house for James Logan, a Quaker merchant, politician, justice, scientist, scholar, and secretary to William Penn. Stenton was home to six generations of Logans and a diverse community of enslaved, indentured, and free laborers, including Dinah, who lived and labored at Stenton for over 50 years. Furnished with 18th- and 19th-century Logan family objects, and remaining in little-altered condition, a visit to Stenton offers an unparalleled experience of early Pennsylvania.

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May 22nd | 10:30am - 2:00pm

Sadware and Historic Pewter: Talks & Workshop

In honor of the Semiquincentennial and Radical Americana, please the Stenton team for a day that combines consideration and examination of historical pewter objects with Sadware, a contemporary artists’ installation that commemorates pewter as a historically important metal with a longstanding place in American nostalgia culture. Sadware asks us what we value, culturally and monetarily and why, and speaks to changes over time, memory, authority, collecting, and discarding.

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Schedule: 

10:30 AM - Pewter & Sadware – Craft, Nostalgia, and Value Artists Belle-Pilar Fleming and Bri Murphy consider pewter objects as opportunities to examine notions of American identity, inheritance, and consumerism across generations. They will discuss the research and concept behind their embroidery-based installation, now on view at Stenton, as part of the Clay Studio’s 250th Anniversary project Radical Americana.

11:20 AM - Pewter in the Service of Humankind
Curator Don Fennimore will ground our day in the physical properties of pewter, its composition and craft, why it was used, why it fell out of favor over time, and why families like the Logans imported London-made pewter.

12:00 PM - Lunch and Sadware viewing

1:00-2:00 PM - Hands-on Pewter Workshop

Sadware

Sadware is a collaborative project which explores familial inheritance, class, and consumerism through investigations into the material history of pewter in the United States. Through explorations in sculpture, textile, poetry, and book arts, this exhibition treats pewter as a case study through which to interrogate complicated notions of American Identity.

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About the artist

Belle-Pilar Flemming

Belle-Pilar Fleming is a printmaker and textile artist currently living in Greeley, Colorado. She was raised in a small town outside of Dayton, Ohio, a city situated at the threshold of the Rust Belt, Appalachia, and the Midwest. She holds a BA in Psychology from Warren Wilson College, and an MFA in Printmaking from Ohio University. Drawing heavily from research practices based in the social sciences, her work focuses on the lived experiences of individuals across a spectrum of identity and place. Utilizing personal narrative, ethnography, and data visualization, she investigates the role of the artists as a community historian and the sociocultural contexts which shape our behavior. She is a former Artist-in-Residence at the Black Church Print Studio in Dublin, Ireland, and the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. She currently serves as the Director of Galleries at the University of Northern Colorado.

Artist website
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about the artist

Bri Murphy

Bri Murphy is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of digital fabrication and traditional sculpture and ceramic practices. Their work explores American identity through the deconstruction of national mythologies and is deeply informed by material investigation, history, and the power of objects to hold meaning and memory. Murphy holds an MFA in Ceramics from Ohio University and bachelor’s degrees from SUNY New Paltz. They are based in Greeley, Colorado, and are Assistant Professor of Sculpture and Digital Fabrication at the University of Northern Colorado.

Artist website

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Sadware

installation detail - recycled pewter ingots

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Sadware

installation detail - using the historic house

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Sadware

Installation detail - embroidered fabric section

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Research Location

Andalusia Historic House, Gardens & Arboretum

Andalusia Historic House, Gardens, & Arboretum is a scenic 50-acre property overlooking thenDelaware River in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. Its Greek Revival mansion, built in 1797 and later expanded by architects Benjamin Latrobe and Thomas Ustick Walter, is a National Historic Landmark with a museum displaying paintings, sculpture, decorative art, and rare books and manuscripts. A non-profit foundation since 1980, Andalusia also features formal and informal gardens, native woodlands, and an accredited arboretum with over 250 unique species and cultivars. Focused on creating beautiful spaces for visitors' enjoyment, Andalusia’s aesthetic grew out of the English landscape tradition and has evolved to reflect the contributions of many residents, gardeners, and designers over the past two centuries.

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Another Place Within

Ritter creates a series of outdoor sculptures for the gardens of Stenton Historic House highlighting the contrast of the original use of the gardens, as place for creating nourishment and healing, to its present construction as a symbol of status. Though site specific Ritter questions the history of skills, and tools lost in the name of status and progress.

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about the artist

Dennis Ritter

Dennis Ritter’s work explores the roles of common objects –house plants, books, appliances, and keepsakes- as foundational markers for identity and memory. These objects are often juxtaposed with one another to create works that reference domestic spaces, second-hand sales, and the personal collection. Ritter’s sculptures are based in the ceramic medium, digital photography, and installation. His intention in working with these processes is to create illusions which elude to personal memories and cultural identities. The impetus for his work exists at the “blurred nexus of personal myth; an intersection of autobiography, family history, and literature.”

Artist website
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Research Location

Historical Society of Pennsylvainia

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, founded in 1824, is one of the nation’s largest archives of historical documents. We are proud to serve as Philadelphia’s Library of American History, with over 21 million manuscripts, books, and graphic images encompassing centuries of US history. HSP serves more than 4,000 on-site researchers annually, as well as millions more worldwide who use its online resources. HSP is also a leading center for documenting and studying ethnic communities and immigrant experiences in the 20th century, and one of the largest family history libraries in the country. Through educator workshops, research opportunities, public programs, and lectures throughout the year, we strive to make history relevant and exhilarating to all.

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Full Project

Radical Americana

For the Semiquincentennial, The Clay Studio is leading Radical Americana, a series of exhibitions organized by a consortium of Philadelphia’s arts and cultural institutions. Each celebrates how artists today are continuing the city’s robust legacy as a center for art, skill, and civic engagement. The 45 artists researched and were inspired by the art and history of Philadelphia in 1776, and the subsequent commemorations in 1876, 1926, and 1976. The artists' new work will add their voices to current dialogue about our nation’s present and future, inspire civil dialogue, celebrate Philadelphia's diversity, and continue the rich tradition of creativity in our city.

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