Esteemed Costume & Textile Curator Edward Maeder Leads Workshops at Pop Up Studio in Philly, Feb. 5-20

Look for the big picture window with the Valentine dress made of coffee filters, q-tips, tissues and the like. Inside this corner space at the intersection in the very heart of Philadelphia’s progressive Mt. Airy neighborhood, curator/artist Edward Maeder will create more art, lead workshops and give a talk on history and color (“like you’ve never thought about color before!”).

Edward Maeder has curated upwards of 80 exhibitions around the world. Formerly Curator of Costumes and Textiles at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (for 15 years) and later, founding director of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, he now is based in Massachusetts where he makes art and continues consulting.

For 16 days this month, he will be in Philadelphia, at the invitation of an old L.A. friend, Pam Rogow, now owner of the mixed use building whose prior tenant, an electric bicycle store, just decamped for space twice the size.

As artist-in-resident, Maeder will create men’s and women’s fashions from ‘found paper’ and lead workshops for making 3-D and personal items from vintage silks and from found papers. He is providing all materials for the workshops, has prepared “MaederMade” kits for sale. And has brought along part of a trove of striped vintage silk samples from the 40s, 50s and 60s, which were made for men’s ties. They will be for sale as well.

Maeder used similar techniques to create paper fashions inspired by the 18th century that toured gallery, museum and other public spaces in the Northeast.

And then there is the workshop on decorating straw hats. And a kids day, with hands-on workshops.

The Mt. Airy space, almost 600 sq ft, is across from a food co-op with 3,000 household members who spend $8 million annually, the Big Blue Marble Bookstore and the High Point Café, a beloved mainstay of the community.

“Edward Maeder is the rarest of curators,” says Ms. Rogow, herself a veteran of the museum exhibit design field. “Utterly brilliant, witty, generous, a raconteur really. But also an artist. Unforgettable experiences await all.”

They are calling the event “MaederMade” with a wink at Marcel Duchamp’s readymade work and the ubiquitous meter maids of Philadelphia’s Parking Authority. For a schedule and other details, see ,www.maedermade.blogspot.com or email muze@erols.com