Glay Yang ‘20

A FISH TALE: Hilary Hutchinson’s fish-themed sculpture for the Cahoon Museum
Photo courtesy of Liz Palumbo ’19

      This summer, Upper School Art Teacher Hilary Hutchison had her art featured at the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Hutchison created and displayed a large-scale sculpture of a cod for the museum’s “Streetside” exhibit, which is open from the beginning of May to the end of October.

Hutchison goes to Cape Cod every summer to teach and attend fundraisers at the Cahoon Museum, where she and other artists are invited to create work to be sold in a live auction, the benefits of which go to the museum. It was through these fundraisers that Hutchison got the opportunity to have her sculpture displayed for the museum.

        Hutchison elaborates on her sculpture, “The cod is an icon of Cape Cod and it’s a fish that is readily available in the North Atlantic. I have done other fish related pieces for these auctions and the director of the museum Sarah Johnson had seen these pieces. And because of that, she invited me to make the sculpture,” says Hutchison. Johnson had seen Hutchison’s sculpture draft for a public art proposal and “thought it would be appropriate for the museum and its collection.” Hutchison’s sculpture is the first of an annual series each summer at the Cahoon Museum, where a different artist creates a large scale sculpture.

    Susan Coote, Campus Center Gallery Coordinator, says, “One of the things I like best about the show is that it highlights the fact that the art teachers here at the Episcopal Academy are also professional artists. [Hutchison] has a pretty important professional practice outside of EA.”

Hutchison’s sculpture has been selected to be cast in bronze and will be a part of the Cahoon Museum’s permanent collection in the future.