Avital Sagalyn Exhibition Campaign

We aim to raise $30,000 to cover the costs of preparing dozens of Avital Sagalyn artworks for an upcoming solo exhibition at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, to be held in 2026. Most of the works curated for this show will be making their public debut.

Avital Sagalyn (1925-2020) was a teenage World War II refugee who became a pioneering artist. Less than a decade after immigrating to NYC, she became one of the first women to receive a Fulbright scholarship to study painting in Paris. There she was befriended by prominent art critics, historians and gallery owners -- such as Charles Estienne, Pierre Francastel and Gildo Caputo -- as well as iconic artists including Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncusi.

Avital forged new ground as a modern artist in a heavily male-dominated art scene. Viewed today, Avital’s artworks carry her unique voice and relevance. Her body of work resists categorization and defies time.

Avital was arguably at the height of her creativity in the 1940s and 1950s, living in New York and Paris. During this time, she spent two summers in Provincetown. The works she created there range from the stunning to the quirky: From sweeping vistas of Provincetown’s foggy harbor, which she could view from her terrace easel at a rented fisherman’s shack, down to the exquisite minutiae of shell fragments collected at the beach.

During the summers of 1945 and 1946, Avital was completing her fine arts bachelor's degree at Cooper Union in New York. She found Provincetown vibrant with fishermen and visiting artists; it was not yet a popular tourist destination. Portuguese immigrants and their simple fishing boats dotted the waters and harbor.

Among the first women working in Provincetown’s nascent artist community, Avital was enamored by the friendly locals and dramatic confluence of land and sea. In 2026 (specific date as-yet unannounced), the renowned Provincetown Art Association and Museum will exhibit guest curator Betsy Siersma's selections of more than three dozen of Avital's works from her time as a young artist on Cape Cod. As visitors of the exhibition will see and feel, Avital responded powerfully to Provincetown -- both artistically and emotionally.

100% of what we receive from your contribution will go toward conserving, matting, framing and transporting artworks for this groundbreaking solo exhibition. We can't wait to share this experience with you. Thank you for helping make it possible.