Bebe Wolfe and the artists of The Wolfe Studio invite the community to enjoy the Museum with them in celebration of their 80th anniversary. Activating spaces throughout the Museum, the artists of this historic Mississippi studio will guide printmaking studio activity, conversations on the legacy and future of the studio, in-gallery experiences with Wolfe artworks, and meditation in The Art Garden.
Everything is free and open to the public.
Morning Meditation w/ Bebe Wolfe & Flowering Lotus Meditation
Since 2005, the Meditation Dojo on the property of The Wolfe Studio has been shared by community-led meditation groups engaging practices of Zen, Insight Meditation, Dharma Study, Recovery and others. Bebe Wolfe will begin the day with a guided meditation in The Art Garden alongside her collaborator Beth Herzig of Flowering Lotus Meditation. Sit with community in this powerful green space stewarded by the Museum.
Coffee w/ Bebe: The History & Future of The Wolfe Studio
Join Bebe Wolfe, Principal Artist of Wolfe Studio, and daniel johnson, Board Chair of The Wolfe Creative Legacy, for a conversation over coffee sharing the history of this Mississippi cultural treasure and the effort to preserve it as a living, breathing legacy of creativity, healing, and meditation for our community.
Look Closely and See: The Four Freedoms
Wolfe artist daniel johnson leads a casual, free-flowing conversational viewing of The Four Freedoms in The Icons Gallery. Join daniel at 11:45 AM or 1 PM to look closely alongside other art lovers at this monumental four-panel work of Mildred Wolfe inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech of the same name. Through a process of sharing our observations, first what we see and then how it speaks to us, the group will discover a collective interpretation of the work which reveals a bit about who we are together and what this work means to us today.
Impressions of The Four Freedoms: Come-and-Go Printmaking w/ Wendy Eddleman-Cooper
A group of Wolfe Studio artists led by Wendy Eddleman-Cooper facilitate a come-and-go printmaking activity inspired by the techniques of Mildred Wolfe and her iconic four-panel painting The Four Freedoms. Participants will learn accessible printmaking techniques that can be reproduced at home without special tools while they explore their own relationship to the Four Freedoms; Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.
Short Intro and Unveiling of Bloomberg Audio Guides: Wolfe in the Permanent Collection & The Four Freedoms
bech evans, Associate Director of Education and Digital Storytelling, speaks about the process and purpose which guided the creation of two new audio guide experiences featuring the works of the Wolfe family.
About the facilitators
Wendy Eddleman-Cooper is a multidisciplinary artist. Her dreamlike and imaginative personal narrative paintings, prints, and stained-glass pieces can be found in collections within Mississippi and beyond. A native of Jackson, MS, Wendy studied with the APAC Visual Art program before studying printmaking, drawing, and 3D arts at the University of Southern Mississippi. Eddelman-Cooper assisted Bebe Wolfe and her creative team for 20 years at Wolfe Studio in Jackson and now is a studio artist and craftsman at Pearl River Glass Studio. In 2002, Wendy worked alongside Mildred Wolfe to produce new editions for 43 woodcut and linocut prints originally made in the 1960’s and 70’s.
Beth Herzig is a mom and meditation enthusiast and a serial volunteer! She has been an active board member and volunteer for Flowering Lotus Meditation since 2017. Retreat management is her passion. Beth has been organizing the retreats at FLM since 2019.
Beth has dedicated much of life to helping others find solace in meditation practices and introducing people to the power of retreat. She leads meditation and helps organize community meditation at The Wolfe Studio Dojo. She leads weekly online dharma sharing and meditation every Sunday. She completed Meditation Instructor Training with Susan Piver in 2018. Beth completed One Dharma Nashville’s 2022 Dharma teacher training. Beth’s Dharma name (given in 2022) is appropriately: Blooming Lotus Heartmind.
When Beth is not practicing meditation, doing retreat work for Flowering Lotus Meditation, or running her business Discount Trophy, Beth enjoys traveling, and exploring local spots with her young adult daughters. Beth dedicates the merit of her volunteer hours to liberation of all beings.
daniel johnson is a multidisciplinary artist/performer drawing considerations and methodologies from their background as a parent, organizer, museum educator, and public historian. Known for his large-scale, community-driven engagements, johnson returned to The Wolfe Studio in 2021 and began working with Bebe Wolfe and the Studio artists to imagine a future for The Wolfe Studio which would be community-driven and continue the legacy of creativity, healing, and meditation the property has become known for.
johnson’s work has been featured by PolicyLink, the Center for the Future of Museums, Georgetown University’s Gnovis journal, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Community Development Innovation Review, and Mississippi Today. johnson serves as the Board Chair for The Wolfe Creative Legacy and the Treasurer for the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production, commonly known as Sipp Culture.
Elizabeth “Bebe” Wolfe was born in 1949. She grew up in an environment rich in creative potential. She is the daughter of two artists, Karl and Mildred Wolfe. She attended the Portland School of Art in Portland Maine from 1980 -1984, and received a BFA in painting.
Bebe and her husband David Weidemann moved back to Jackson in 1985 to help Bebe’s mother Mildred with the studio business. The Wolfe Studio today is a full-time business, employing many talented artists from the area. The Studio functions as a cottage industry and art collective, constantly innovating and refining our product and finding new ways to survive as conditions change around us.
Bebe’s interest in Buddhism and meditation began twenty years ago with an introduction to Zen practice. In 2002 she and David designed and built the Meditation Dojo on their property to provide a place for the Jackson Zen Group to practice. Bebe served as the facilitator for the Jackson Zen Group from 1995 to 2012. She is now helping to facilitate practice for the Jackson Insight Meditation Group. She also acts as host to other meditation groups that use the Dojo every week as a place of practice.
