Virginia Bradley Clark

Virginia Cary Bradley Clark was born in Philadelphia, PA on April 27, 1943. She grew up in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia and attended Springside Academy where she played on the varsity field hockey and lacrosse teams. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1965 with a double major in Art History and Studio Art and a minor in Political Science. After college, she was working as an art teacher at Kensington High School in North Philadelphia when she met Frederic Clark, also from Philadelphia, whom she married in September 1967. She had a long career in the visual arts and dance worlds, including stints at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, PA where she served as its first Executive Director. She founded the Eastern Pennsylvania Art Center Association, which ultimately had 42 member organizations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. She served on the Community Arts Panel of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, represented Pennsylvania with the American Advocates for the Arts and was a Trustee of the Friends of Art at Wellesley College. Virginia completed graduate work at Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts, Harvard Business School, and Winterthur Museum's Institute for Decorative Arts. Her career evolved to journalism, where she continued to focus on the visual arts. She wrote for Maine Antiques Digest and The Art and Antiques Weekly, but she never stopped being a practicing artist engaged in painting, drawing, and sculpture. She exhibited widely, including at Woodmore Art Museum, Fleisher Art Memorial, Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, and the Jackson Hole Art Association in Wyoming. She also exhibited her work from 2011-2018 at the Royal College of Art, London. She also spent five years as a Resident Guest Artist in the Dance Department at Bryn Mawr College, and her original artwork appeared on promotional posters all over campus at Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore Colleges. Outside of her artwork and journalism, Virginia loved her orchids, her labradors, and her family, particularly her children, children-in-law, and grandchildren. She was also passionate about public service, gun control and protecting democracy. Virginia is survived by her two adult children; daughter Allison Clark and son-in-law Paul J. Karafiol, son Edward “Ned” Clark and daughter-in-law Kate Clark, and six grandchildren, Ari Karafiol, Jonah Karafiol, Helen Karafiol, Cooper Clark, Kiera Clark, and T.J. Clark.

In lieu of flowers, our the family suggests donating to Wellesley College or Democracy Forward.

https://www.wellesley.edu/giving

https://democracyforward.org/act/donate/

Services are private and for immediate family only.

A celebration of life is being planned for after the summer. Details to follow.