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      Artist Talk

      Salem as Muse | Massachusetts Shoemaking: Look Back and Stepping Forward

      Sunday, July 12, 2026 from 1—2 pm

      Sarah Guerin sitting on the doorstep to Tapley-Lye Ten Footer Shoe Shop

      Other dates & times

      July 12, 2026 from 1—2 pm

      Salem as Muse: Massachusetts Shoemaking

      August 6, 2026 from 3—4 pm

      Salem as Muse: Massachusetts Shoemaking

      Know before you go

      In-person event
      Location: Morse Auditorium

      Included with admission; preregistration encouraged. 

      Join bootmaker Sarah Madeleine T. Guerin for an artist talk as part of our "Salem as Muse" lecture series. Guerin will discuss her bootmaking process in PEM's Lye-Tapley Shoe Shop, as well as her background, artistic practice and work. PEM's Curator-at-Large Paula Richter will join her a presentation on PEM’s impressive shoe collection and the local history of shoemaking and manufacturing.

      This program is part of PEM's Salem 400+ celebrations.

      About our collaborators

      Sarah Madeleine T. Guerin
      Sarah Madeleine T. Guerin

      Sarah Madeleine T. Guerin, or Saboteuse, analyzes the historical nexus of artisan work within legacies of gendered labor, industrialization and hierarchies of fine art, design and craft. Her work as a researcher and educator ties the architecture of the workplace to legacies of craft knowledge and systems that contemporary artists work within today. Guerin builds Western boots and crafts fine art objects that utilize bootmaking skills to manipulate the cowboy boot's strong cultural iconography, shifting the canon of this traditional form. The entire tradition, history and knowledge she employs in making these pieces represent an active resistance to historical systems that would have withheld this knowledge from her due to her gender, or exploited her underpaid labor. 

      Paula Bradstreet Richter
      Paula Bradstreet Richter

      Since 2009, Paula Richter has been responsible for curatorial research and support of the museum's changing exhibition program, related publications and core activities within the curatorial department. She has participated on exhibition teams for more than a dozen recent and upcoming exhibitions and numerous gallery installations and rotations, including The Salem Witch Trials 1692. She previously worked for the Cape Ann Historical Association, the Sargent House Museum and Landmark College. A graduate of the University of New Hampshire, Richter writes and lectures on American textiles and fashion and New England art and decorative arts. She also leads PEM’s partnership with Handwork 2026, presented by Craft in America.

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