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      PEM Reads: The Painter's Fire

      Monday, August 11, 2025 from 6—8 pm

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      PEM Reads: The Painter's Fire

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      Location: Cotting–Smith Assembly House (138 Federal Street). This property is not handicap accessible.

      Free, with pre-registration

      This event series is a part of PEM Reads.

      Join us for an engaging evening with author Zara Anishanslin, who will discuss her critically acclaimed book The Painter's Fire. PEM’s current exhibition Making History: 200 Years of American Art from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts features a work by 18th-century sculptor Patience Wright, a character in the book. Together, Anishanslin and PEM’s Curator of American Art, Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, will explore the connections between art, history and identity. Enjoy a rare opportunity to peek inside PEM’s Cotting–Smith Assembly House.

      An author meet-and-greet and book signing will follow the talk. Copies of The Painter’s Fire will be available for purchase.

      About the author

      Zara Anishanslin
      Zara Anishanslin

      Zara Anishanslin is a writer and a professor at the University of Delaware, specializing in Early American and Atlantic World History, with a focus on 18th-century material culture. Her first book, Portrait of a Woman in Silk: Hidden Histories of the British Atlantic World was the inaugural winner of the Library Company of Philadelphia’s Biennial Book Prize in 2018 and a finalist for the 2017 Best First Book Prize from the Berkshire Conference of Women’s Historians. Anishanslin is currently a fellow at the David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in history, art history and material culture, she is an active public historian with professional and pedagogical experience in museum studies and historic preservation. She is also the creator and co-host of the history podcast Thing4Things, launching in 2025.

      About the host

      Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, Ph.D.
      Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, Ph.D.

      Jeffrey Richmond-Moll joined PEM in 2023 and now oversees an expansive collection that encompasses over four centuries of American art, culture and creative expression. Previously the Curator of American Art at the Georgia Museum of Art, on the campus of the University of Georgia, Richmond-Moll has a wide range of expertise in American art from the colonial era to the late 20th century. He pursues interdisciplinary, experimental curatorial strategies to tell compelling, inclusive stories about our nation’s past, present and future. His highly collaborative practice seeks to forge connections across media and time periods and unlock new ideas about American art and identity. Richmond-Moll received his Ph.D. and M.A. in art history from the University of Delaware and a B.A. in art and archaeology from Princeton University. He is the former co-chair of the Association of Historians of American Art. Follow @jrmcurator on Instagram.

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