Wilhelmina McAlpin Godfrey

Godfrey was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was raised and educated in Buffalo, New York.[1] She was married to William Godfrey Jr. and they had one child together, Carol Godfrey Wing.[2] Wilhelmina Godfrey died on May 13, 1994 in Buffalo, New York.[1][3]

Wilhelmina Godfrey attended Fosdick Masten Park High School in Buffalo, where she took all the art classes that the school offered. Her schooling was interrupted by the Great Depression. She was able to continue her education in the 1940s after she received scholarships from the Art Institute of Buffalo and the Albright Art School of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, from which she graduated in 1949.[4] In 1962, Godfrey completed studies in weaving at the Rochester Institute of Technology School for American Craftsmen.[4]

Godfrey began her career as a painter and printmaker, later creating artworks in fiber beginning in the early 1960s. She actively promoted community arts efforts in western New York.

In 1951, she organized and taught drawing and painting classes at the YMCA on Michigan Ave in Buffalo. She also organized and taught art classes at Buffalo's St. Philip's Episcopal Church community center. From 1952 to 1963 Godfrey worked for AM&A's department store as an artist, but in 1963 she left to focus on her art.

Godfrey's early paintings depict the lives of Buffalo's east side residents. In 1958, after being inspired by an exhibition in Rochester, New York, she started weaving and began to create sculptures in fiber. She organized the University at Buffalo's weaving program, and from 1967 to 1970, she taught at its Creative Craft Center.

Godfrey founded the Langston Hughes Center for the Visual and Performing Arts (later renamed the Langston Hughes Institute) along with fellow artists, Jim Pappas, Allie Anderson, Clarence Scott, and Hal Franklin.[3][5]

In 1974, Godfrey received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a scholarship from Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Godfrey's textile works were abstract and often included motifs inspired by African art. In 1977, she wrote that she was exploring "the influence of Africa on the black-American craftspeople working in the United States today."[4] Two years later, in 1979, she presented at the National African American Crafts Conference Symposium on "The Negro Slave Crafts Workers of North and South Carolina."

Godfrey was commissioned to create artworks for St. Philip's Episcopal Church and Buffalo's St. Matthew's Episcopal Church.[2]In 1990, Godfrey received the Individual Artist Within the Community Award from the Buffalo and Erie County Arts Council. In this same year, she exhibited at Medaille College. In 1994, the Burchfield Penney Arts Center acquired her painting City Playground for its permanent collection.[2] Three additional Godfrey works are included in the Burchfield Penney's permanent collection: Untitled (#22), Sint Maarten, and Face Fetish.[6]