BORDENTOWN CITY: Tasha Tudor fans celebrate New Jersey chapter

By Amy Batista, Special Writer
   Fans of Tasha Tudor’s work celebrated her by starting the first New Jersey chapter of the Tasha Tudor Museum Society.
   The New Jersey chapter held its first organizational meeting at 1 p.m. at the Friends Meeting House at 302 Farnsworth Ave. on June 28. Around six people attended the event.
   ”We have such a hectic life and to be able to take yourself out of your everyday life and in some sense of fantasy, which is what she did with her books too, is very relaxing,” said Diane Flanigan, founder of the New Jersey Chapter of the Tasha Tudor Museum Society.
   She noted it is “basically a fan club.”
   ”It’s an old-fashioned kind of fan club,” she said. “We are celebrating who she is and was and the back-to-basics way of life she lived.”
   She began organizing the chapter a few months ago.
   ”I talked to the ladies who run the chapter in Pennsylvania and then I talked to the family and everybody is very enthusiastic and encouraging,” she said. “The family has a museum in Brattleboro, Vermont and has begun to branch out. Other fans in other states have begun to set up museum chapters.”
   Mary Mahony, of Burlington Township, teamed up with her after attending the street fair in Bordentown in May and seeing a flier for the premier of the New Jersey chapter.
   ”It was like it said ‘Dear Mary,’” said Ms. Mahony. “Not everybody knows who Tasha Tudor is, never mind enthusiastic about her, so I had to come and find out about it. I came here since that’s where the fliers were and met Diane.”
   In June, both ladies went to visit the Tasha Tudor home.
   The temporary home for the Tasha Tudor Museum in Brattleboro, Vermont offers an up-close look at Ms. Tudor’s vintage clothes collection and original art. Her dollhouse has returned from Colonial Williamsburg and will be on display during this year’s house and garden tours, according to a press release from Ms. Flanigan.
   ”About 40 years ago someone gave him (her son) one of her books, ‘Corgiville Fair’, and I fell in love with her illustrations,” Ms. Flanigan said.
   Ms. Tudor has written and illustrated more that 75 award-winning children’s books since her first, “Pumpkin Moonshine,” in 1938, she said.
   ”Those people who know who she is and are her followers and followers of children’s literature know who she is,” she said, adding there are a lot of fans all over the world.
   She said MS. Tudor is a “lifestyle guru.”
   ”Even though it was the twentieth century, she was raising her four children and living in Vermont as a farm family would in the nineteenth century cooking and sewing,” she said. “For all and intents and purposes she was a single woman raising four children and doing a job of it by selling her artwork and her books.”
   She is famous for her charming art and craftwork, including watercolor paintings and handmade dolls. She is also famous for the 1830s-style New England world she preserved on her farm in southern Vermont, according to the press release.
   ”I think not only is her appeal children’s books, there are so many genres, between the Corgis or Christmas, cookbooks, there is a lot of variety of what she can appeal to a wide variety of people, “ Ms. Mahony said, adding she is very simple but enjoyable.
   Ms. Mahony attributed her love for Ms. Tudor to her grandmother and her mother who both had her Christmas cards and advent calendars.
   ”I just loved her artwork and her borders would have the families celebrating Christmas up above and then you would have the little mouse family celebrating Christmas right underneath, which is kind of pretty,” she said.
   The chapter members had tea and made tea sachets during the meeting. Other refreshments were also available.
   ”This is great,” said Suzanne Wheelock, of Bordentown City. “If you look at her pictures they are incredible.”
   Resident Kathy Finch said Ms. Tudor was “dedicated.”
   ”I love her art,” said Jo-Anne Wilson, of Bordentown City.
   Basic membership to the chapter costs $25.
   Anyone who is interested or would like more information should contact Diane at 609-298-3779 or [email protected].