About Finding Judy

Finding Judy is a digital archive project devoted to celebrating the life and work of Judith Shahn—a prolific, yet often overlooked American artist of the 20th century. 

An accomplished printmaker, illustrator, and painter, Judith Shahn built a significant body of work over several decades. Yet her life and legacy have often been overshadowed by the men in her life: her father, renowned artist Ben Shahn, and her husband, the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Alan Dugan.

This project brings Judith’s story to light by digitizing her artwork, papers, and personal memorabilia—much of it recovered from her home in Truro, Massachusetts—and by drawing on the memories of those who knew her.

In 2018, writer Lisa Mecham visited Cove Gallery in Wellfleet, MA and encountered Judith’s work for the first time. Liane Biron, the gallery’s co-owner, explained that the pieces belonged to the artist Judith Shahn, who had lived and worked in Truro until her death in 2009. “Someone should write about her,” Liane said.

In 2023, Lisa began doing just that. She uncovered a wealth of material documenting Judith’s decades of creative work and her life among artists in Greenwich Village and Cape Cod. Interviews with family, friends, and collectors have further illuminated Judith’s inner life and artistic evolution. 

As the project evolves, Finding Judy will become a space where art lovers, historians and community members can engage with Judith’s work and legacy. Her life spanned a dynamic period in American art history, overlapping with major movements and cultural shifts, yet her contributions have remained largely unrecognized.

Honoring Judith Shahn

If you wish to honor the legacy of Judith Shahn, you can do so by supporting The Alan Dugan/Judith Shahn Endowed Fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA.

Since it’s creation nearly 60 years ago, the Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship has become one of the leading residency programs in the world. Each year, the Work Center offers 20 seven-month residencies to a juried group of emerging visual artists, fiction writers, and poets. Fellows receive an apartment, a studio, and a monthly stipend that allows them to pursue their work independently within a diverse and supportive community of peers.

Judith Shahn and her husband Alan Dugan were among the artists and writers who founded the Fine Arts Work Center and helped carry it through decades of growth. Judith served many roles over the years: on the Board of Trustees, the Visual Arts Committee, as Acting President, and by sharing her masterful cooking to help Fellows feel at home.

Your support of the Alan Dugan/Judith Shahn Fellowship helps sustain this life-changing residency and carries forward the devotion Judith and Alan showed to nurturing future generations of artists and writers.