We are sad to report that Marianne Simmel passed away recently after a long illness. Marianne survived the Holocaust in Europe, grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side, went to Smith Collage, got a PhD at Harvard and taught psychology for many years at Brandies University. As she said in an interview, she started doodling in faculty meetings with graph paper around the same time she was getting fed up with the academic life. She subsequently had a successful decade long career in textile design. She settled in Eastham in her later years and produced a large body of designs, in some cases informed by her previous work in human perception and the brain.
After searching unsuccessfully for an institution interested in preserving her work CCMHT has arranged to archive her art work and textile designs which will be stored at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) in their secure art storage facility. We hope to exhibit her work in the future and preserve if for scholars and admirers.
