Emmett Wigglesworth

Muralist, painter, sculptor, fabric designer and poet, Emmett Wigglesworth was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he attended the College of Art and later enlisted in military service. He was honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corp. in 1957 and has resided in New York since 1958.

Mr. Wigglesworth has designed and illustrated several books and magazines for various publishing companies including Harper and Row, McGraw Hill, Macmillan Press, American Books and Sesame Street magazine. He's combined his poetry and printmaking, produced a documentary on "Aging," and designed the covers for two volumes of the Journal of Black Poetry. He taught art at the New Muse in Brooklyn, the J.O.I.N. Center, the Children's Art Carnival and the Harlem Parents Association in Manhattan. He was also an instructor for a number of special programs for the Board of Education, where he taught academics through art.

Mr. Wigglesworth participated in the Civil Rights movement starting in 1959 and in the early '60's taught art at the CORE Freedom School in Selma, Alabama. During that time he wrote and directed two plays for the CORE Freedom Theater in San Francisco. In 1968 he designed the interior and exterior of the Bedford Stuyvesant Theater in Brooklyn. He also designed costumes and stage sets for the Black Spectrum Theater in Queens, N.Y. His work has been exhibited in Ghana and throughout the U.S. and his mural commissions include: private homes, P.S. 181 in Brooklyn, the New York Cultural Council, Metropolitan Transit Authority, Kings County Hospital, Abyssinian Development Corporation and the Brooklyn Children's Center and eleven murals for the Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation and Urban Resource Institute      (ARTC-URI).

Emmett Wigglesworth is a member of the National Conference of Artists, the Weusi Artists N.Y.C., Association of Caribbean and American Artists, AAA Artists and Cross Sections, as well as the Fulton Art Fair Artists.

Artist Statement: "It seems that in a time of materialism, self-interest, and self-gratification to the extreme, the purpose of life has been forgotten...so too is the purpose of talent. The enhancement of humanity gives life and talent meaning. It is my hope and prayer that by using my talent in a functional way I can remind humanity of the need to search for, and put into practice spiritual truth."