About
Elizabeth

I grew up as a studio brat, surrounded by artists, models, paint and canvas. My father, Ted Valsam, was an architectural designer who worked with my Godfather, Ives Gammell, to design frames, facilitate the painting of large easle paintings and murals and ultimately, to establish an atelier to teach interested students how to paint in the tradition that was passed from Jacques Louis David to Paul De La Roche, then to Jean Leon Gerome, then to Dennis Miller Bunker and Willliam Paxton, and then to Ives Gammell.   Their teaching efforts came as a direct result of Gammell's perception that this tradition would be lost if not passed on and is outlined in this book TWILIGHT OF PAINTING.

Gammell died in 1981. In his will, he established the R. H. Ives Gammell Studios Trust, whose purpose was to sell Gammell's unsold paintings and use the proceeds to support the teaching efforts of his students and the students of his students. Working with the Hammer Gallery in New York, I set about building Gammell's reputation by editing Gammell's books BOSTON PAINTERS -1900 - 1930 and the second edition of TWILIGHT OF PAINTING. In 1993, at Hammer's suggestion, I curated and traveled with the exhibition THE HOUND OF HEAVEN – A PICTORIAL SEQUENCE which traveled to 11 museums in the United States, England and Scotland from 1993 through 1996.

In 2000, I became the Guest Curator at the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, WA, where I organized the exhibition TRANSCENDING VISION, which traveled to museums in the United States and England for two years. I co-wrote the book, TRANSCENDING VISION - R. H. IVES GAMMELL 1893-1981, jointly with Gerald R. Ackerman, and it served as the catalogue for the exhibition.

In 2003, I curated the Frederick Judd Waugh exhibition for the Cape Cod Museum of Art and was appointed Exhibitions Curator in July of that year. In September, I was appointed Executive Director of the museum and served in that position until 2012. I have taught courses on Provincetown Painters 1883-1960 at the Academy for Life Long Learning and at the Weny Education Center at the Cape Cod Museum of Art.

In 2021, I was presented with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who's Who.