Pond Farm Docent
Marguerite Friedlaender Wildenhain, an early Bauhaus graduate and student of sculptor Gerhard Marcks and potter Max Krehan, became the first woman to receive the designation of Master Potter in pre-World War II Europe. Forced to flee Germany in 1933 because of her Jewish ancestry, Wildenhain sought refuge in Holland and in 1940, made her way to the United States, eventually accepting an invitation from Gordon and Jane Herr in 1942 to help create an experimental art colony in Guerneville. When the art colony collapsed in 1952, Wildenhain purchased the land and buildings from Gordon Herr, establishing her own Pond Farm Pottery in the Bauhaus tradition. The Pond Farm site — including a 19th-century livestock barn converted into a ceramics studio and showroom, Wildenhain's small home, a guest cottage, and cultivated landscape — served for half a century as a significant gathering place for artists and students and is today a National Historic Landmark. Her life's work as an artist and teacher sent out ripples that still course through the art world.
Tasks: Lead tours of Pond Farm Pottery on Saturday mornings throughout the year.
