Wharton Esherick Museum

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Wharton Esherick Museum Home & Studio of artist Wharton Esherick (1887-1970)
National Historic Landmark for Architecture
Studio Tours by reservation March through December

Please note: Visitors MUST HAVE ADVANCE RESERVATIONS to tour the site. We offer multiple tour experiences. An Experiencing Esherick visit emphasizes a sense of place and integrity of materials, thinking broadly about Esherick’s legacy in the fields of art, craft, design, and architecture, and fostering a deep connection to the singular nature of the Studio. An Esherick and Architecture tour will lead you through the Museum’s upper campus, which is recognized as a National Historic Landmark for Architecture. The tour focuses on two experimental buildings: the Esherick Studio (1926-1966) and the 1956 Workshop (1956). Book your reservation online: www.whartonesherickmuseum.org
Book over the phone: 610-644-5822

If you have questions please email [email protected] or call 610-644-5822. Walk-ins will NOT be accommodated. Become a member and your entry is always free! Advance reservations are still required. Membership levels vary. AAM and National Trust member discounts are honored.

Spooky season calls for a fitting . Enter Frocin. Esherick often documented theater scenes in his woodcuts but, this ch...
10/21/2026

Spooky season calls for a fitting . Enter Frocin. Esherick often documented theater scenes in his woodcuts but, this character from the play Tristan and Iseult is by far the spookiest.

"Prologue - Frocin"
1931
5-1/2 in x 4-1/2 in
Wharton Esherick
Wharton Esherick Museum Collection

🪑 TOMORROW! Don't miss Spotlight Talk: Interpreting the Chair. Join us for a conversation about how WEM’s current Artist...
10/19/2026

🪑 TOMORROW! Don't miss Spotlight Talk: Interpreting the Chair. Join us for a conversation about how WEM’s current Artist-in-Residence, Jennifer Johnson, interpreted Esherick’s chairs through new artworks created for her exhibition "All the Time in the World."

Tuesday (10/20) at 12 PM
Free & virtual -- https://whartonesherickmuseum.org/event/spotlight-talk-interpreting-the-chair

WEM curators, Emily Zilber and Holly Gore, will explore Johnson’s practice of observation, documentation, and creation, both on campus and in her studio, and connect her approach to Esherick’s own practice of revisiting and transforming his chair designs — including for well-known objects like the Hammer Handle and SK Chairs — throughout his career.

Pictured:
Jennifer Johnson, Five Views of the Hammer Handle Chair, 2026.
Wharton Esherick, Hammer Handle Chair, 1938.

This month, WEM staff Paul Deichman and Holly Gore sat down to talk about the story-driven tour of the Esherick Studio t...
10/16/2026

This month, WEM staff Paul Deichman and Holly Gore sat down to talk about the story-driven tour of the Esherick Studio that Deichman co-designed: “The Mortar Between the Stones: Stories of the Studio.”

HG: Is there a particular moment that you would point to as being particularly vivid?

PD: There are several stories that have crept their way into all the tours I give because they have become so fundamental to me. We’re sitting right now in the Studio dining room. Wharton used scrap wood to make this incredible mosaic of a floor. There’s a story about how that affected his lumber supplier–seeing the result, realizing who he was dealing with, and what this guy could do with material.

Read more about Paul, the stories that fill Esherick's Studio, and the Mortar Between the Stones tour in our most recent blog post:
https://whartonesherickmuseum.org/storytelling-at-wem-a-conversation-with-paul-deichman

Pictured:
Guests enjoying the stories of the Studio with Paul Deichman.
Wharton and Miriam relaxing with friends at the Studio, circa 1956-1966.

Chair fans, our upcoming Spotlight Talk: Interpreting the Chair (and this ) are for you! Let's admire chairs in every m...
10/14/2026

Chair fans, our upcoming Spotlight Talk: Interpreting the Chair (and this ) are for you! Let's admire chairs in every medium together.

Join us on Tuesday (10/20) for a free, virtual conversation about how WEM’s current Artist-in-Residence, Jennifer Johnson, interpreted Esherick’s chairs through new artworks created for her exhibition All the Time in the World.

Register here- https://whartonesherickmuseum.org/event/spotlight-talk-interpreting-the-chair

"Last Chips From an Old Block"
for Emily Clark’s book Stuffed Peacocks
1927
Height
2-1/2 in x 2-1/2 in
Wharton Esherick
Wharton Esherick Museum Collection

Join us for a talk with Jennifer Johnson, WEM’s 2026 Artist-in-Residence, about her current exhibition at WEM, All the T...
10/12/2026

Join us for a talk with Jennifer Johnson, WEM’s 2026 Artist-in-Residence, about her current exhibition at WEM, All the Time in the World!

📅 Saturday November 14th
🕑 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
🎟 Reserve your ticket - www.whartonesherickmuseum.org/event/jennifer-johnson-artist-talk

Johnson will be in conversation about her new body of work created during the residency with WEM’s curator Emily Zilber, and will discuss how she charted connections between the architecture and landscape of WEM’s campus, WEM’s collections, and Esherick’s story. Johnson’s new body of work in clay highlights the ways that buildings and the things they contain record histories, reveal lived experiences, and embody creative labor.

Image: Jennifer Johnson, Studio from the East on Electric Blue, 2026. Photography by Constance Mensh.

The next time you visit Esherick's Studio, don't forget to check out the window sills!On the sill of the big frosted gla...
10/11/2026

The next time you visit Esherick's Studio, don't forget to check out the window sills!

On the sill of the big frosted glass window in the Studio, there sits a collection of mostly unfinished carvings, models, and wood scraps. In the far corner, though, rests a few chunks of wood largely devoured by termites. After discovering the bugs when digging for access beneath a proposed new floor, Esherick continued to dig to remove them and set aside portions to display as the termites own sculptures 🐜🐜🐜

Jennifer Johnson captured so many pieces, spaces, and moments in time at WEM during her year-long artist residency. Her ...
10/09/2026

Jennifer Johnson captured so many pieces, spaces, and moments in time at WEM during her year-long artist residency. Her mosaics and sculptural works are not simply illustrations of the Studio. Instead they act as records of this year of inquiry, using deeply saturated color, unconventional perspective, and the malleability of clay.

One of the mosaics included in the exhibition "Jennifer Johnson: All the Time in the World" beautifully and colorfully features Esherick's Dining Room Chair (1937). The chair sits in the Dining Room of the Studio and the current handwoven fabric was installed on it in 1963, the gift of a client who commissioned six similar chairs and sent Esherick seven pieces of fabric in three different colors.

Read all about Johnson's practice, research, and experience at WEM in an interview featured as an April blog post and come see "All the Time in the World" in person through the end of the year!

Blog -- www.whartonesherickmuseum.org/an-interview-with-wem-artist-in-residence-jennifer-johnson

Pictured:
Jennifer Johnson, Fabric Dining Chair on Violet (1937), 2026.
Wharton Esherick, Dining Room Chair, 1937.

It's that time of year; Time for pumpkins, apples, leaf piles, and hayrides through corn fields 🍂"Turkey in Cornfield"n....
10/07/2026

It's that time of year; Time for pumpkins, apples, leaf piles, and hayrides through corn fields 🍂

"Turkey in Cornfield"
n.d.
8-1/4 in x 5-1/2 in
Wharton Esherick
Wharton Esherick Museum Collection

🪑 Wharton Esherick returned to the chair again and again throughout his career. His explorations of materials, uses, and...
10/07/2026

🪑 Wharton Esherick returned to the chair again and again throughout his career. His explorations of materials, uses, and ideas related to the chair not only resulted in some of his best-known works, but also inspired artists across disciplines to approach seating in new and creative ways.

Join us for a conversation about how WEM’s current Artist-in-Residence, Jennifer Johnson, interpreted Esherick’s chairs through new artworks created for her exhibition "All the Time in the World." Emily Zilber, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Strategic Partnerships, and Holly Gore, Director of Interpretation and Associate Curator, will explore Johnson’s practice of observation, documentation, and creation, both on campus and in her studio, and connect her approach to Esherick’s own practice of revisiting and transforming his chair designs — including for well-known objects like the Hammer Handle and SK Chairs — throughout his career.

Tuesday, October 20th
12:00 - 12:30 PM
Free & virtual event
Register to join us -- https://whartonesherickmuseum.org/event/spotlight-talk-interpreting-the-chair

Image: (left) SK Chair tile by Jennifer Johnson and (right) SK Chair by Wharton Esherick, 1957. Photograph by Eoin O’Neill.

The dining room wall in Esherick's Studio never looks quite as warm and inviting as it does on autumn afternoons. Covere...
10/06/2026

The dining room wall in Esherick's Studio never looks quite as warm and inviting as it does on autumn afternoons. Covered in wood, ceramic, and paper artworks, the cherry faced wall looks so soft in the soft light.

Be sure to come for a tour or event at the Studio before the end of the year!

Reminder: Tours often sell out as far as 2-3 weeks in advance and we close during January and February each year.

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Address

1520 Horseshoe Trl
Malvern, PA
19355

Telephone

+16106445822

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