Member Profile

Meet Mary Page Evans
By Brian Lang

In the worst of times, art helps us to get by. At least, that is how Delaware artist and WHYY member Mary Page Evans sees things.

"Without culture, we couldn't survive," Evans says. She notes that the services WHYY provides are indispensable to the public in these trying times, and that not only is WHYY's news and public affairs service more important than ever to keep the public informed, but so is arts and culture programming.

Evans became a WHYY member shortly after discovering public radio on a lengthy road trip and has been a member for more than a decade. She began her career in the arts as a musician, and not long afterward, she became a visual artist.

Evans claims that both nature and musical elements influence her visual art, which has been on display in 10 solo exhibitions at the Carspecken-Scott Gallery in Wilmington, Delaware since 1974. Her work is the subject of the documentary film in-the-making, Mary Page Evans: The Force of Nature, part of which was recently screened at the Rehoboth Beach Film Festival.

Evans, who enjoys Masterpiece Theatre and all of the arts and culture programming on WHYY, believes in this kind of programming so strongly that she graciously donated a portion of the proceeds from the sale of her paintings at the film festival to WHYY. "I think we're all clinging to art and beauty just to try to understand the world we live in," Evans says. Since September 11, not only do the arts help to provide a healthy distraction from today's newscasts, but Evans says she believes that art will eventually help to make something constructive out of such horrible events.