Current
Susan Angela Welsh November 10, 1938 - March 31, 2026
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Sue A. Welsh, co-founder of NPF and close friend and associate of Noah Purifoy since the 1960s.
Educator, artist, poet, she also spearheaded our Urban Arts Initiative to honor Noah’s deep commitment to the arts as a tool for learning and personal growth. With our Education Committee she created a three-part curriculum which became the cornerstone of in-class and field trip activities for South LA middle school students.
She was also a much-loved mother, grandmother, sister, wife, and friend. She will be deeply missed.
She left us peacefully, just as she always lived, with grace and quiet strength, There are no words for how much she meant to Noah, to this foundation, and to me personally. For those who never met her, she was a force of nature - brilliant, fierce, endlessly compassionate. She believed in Noah’s vision when few others did, and her love and labor are woven into every inch of this place we all cherish. — Joe Lewis
Photographs from top left: Sue with Noah at the Watts Towers Arts Center c.1960s; Sue and Noah working on High Desert manuscript; NPF’s first board meeting at Noah’s studio in Joshua Tree, 1998; Sue giving a UAI tour at the Outdoor Museum; with grandson Ciarán (aka Darth Vader); Sue and Joe Lewis at Charlie James Gallery opening
Vernisage TV, interviews NPF president Joe Lewis
Joe Lewis sits down with Heinrich Schmidt, founder and Director of Vernissage TV based in Basel, Switzerland, for breakfast and an in-depth interview covering Noah’s life, legacy, and art practice.
See the interview here as well as posts covering Noah’s 2015 LACMA retrospective, Junk Dada, and their visits to the Outdoor Museum in 2015 and 2020.
California Arts Council celebrates its 50th anniversary!
10 artists, art leaders, and art organizations were awarded for their contributions to the creative culture and legacy of California, as well as original CAC members, including Noah Purifoy, at the 50th anniversary celebration in Sacramento on April 20th.
The artistic and cultural achievements of these individuals and organizations have been extraordinary, meaningful, immeasurable, and immovable — Executive Director, Danielle Brazell
Noah was appointed in 1976 to the CAC by governor Jerry Brown where he served for 11 years as the chairman of a subcommittee creating and administering the Artists in Schools, Artists in Communities, and Artists in Social Institutions programs which brought arts education into California schools and prison systems.
In the photograph below are founding members or their representatives, from left to right: Peter Lanier for Ruth Asawa (her son), NPF president Joe Lewis for Noah Purifoy, Suzanne Jackson, Luis Valdez, Peter Coyote. Offstage was Gary Snyder.
Listen to Peter Coyote’s reflections on Noah here @calartscouncil
Noah Purifoy Outdoor Sculpture Museum, photo by Rick Granados ©2022
NPF is now a member of HAHS, the prestigious coalition of Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios
The Outdoor Sculpture Museum has been accepted into HAHS, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation! We join 54 other museums across the U.S., all homes and studios of esteemed American artists.
It is truly an honor to be included in the historically important and vital HAHS community, said Joseph S. Lewis, President of the Noah Purifoy Foundation, and look forward to the wider recognition of Noah Purifoy that this will bring. One of our key missions as a Foundation is to conserve and maintain Noah's Outdoor Sculpture Museum (Noah's 10-acre studio) and are very excited to join an organization which understands and promotes the historical significance of artist's creative spaces.
On August 17, 2022, Noah’s 105th birthday NPF participated in the HAHS Virtual Road Trip! Our presentation introduces the viewer to Noah’s multifaceted life, and showcases the work at the Outdoor Museum.
The Fire Next Time (After James Baldwin) I, II, III
MoMA Acquires Noah’s Tombstones
The Fire Next Time (After James Baldwin) I, II, III, 1995, are tombstones from Noah’s early Joshua Tree days. We are so happy that they are now part of MoMA’s permanent collection!
Perhaps Baldwin in his words and Noah in his art reflect the Negro Spiritual that includes the lines: God gave Noah the rainbow sign/ No more water but fire next time.
--Sue A. Welsh, emeritus trustee and cofounder of NPF
Restoration, 1990s
Installation shot of Restoration at the Blanton Museum of Art
Blanton Acquires Restoration
In December 2021 the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin acquired Noah’s epic assemblage Restoration, 1990’s. Along with this piece the Blanton has, in the last few years, acquired 11 other works by contemporary Black artists based in the U.S. The funds for these acquisitions came from an anonymous donor who wanted to make a “transformative gift of funds for the specific purpose of acquiring works by contemporary Black artists” and was “excited about supporting a university art museum - particularly one connected to the South”, according to an article by Jessica Fuentes in Glasstire.
These 12 works are now on view at the Blanton until September 2022 in the exhibit Assembly: New Acquisitions by Contemporary Black Artists.
Judson Powell during an art class at the Watts Towers Art Center
Judson and Noah at 66 Signs of Neon exhibition. Judson sits in front of Barrel and Plow, a collaboration between Judson and Noah
Judson Powell July 13, 1933 - February 8, 2021
It is with sadness that NPF announces the passing of Judson Powell, visual artist, musician, community activist and great friend and collaborator of Noah Purifoy.
Judson met Noah in 1964, and though he was an accomplished musician at the time, he chose to turn his creative energies toward the making of assemblage art. He became an important presence at the Watts Towers Art Center, teaching art classes to the children in the surrounding community. His collaboration with Noah on the 66 Signs of Neon traveling exhibition responded to the Watts uprising in 1965. Together they collected tons of detrius from the neighborhood and along with a number of other artists, created 66 pieces of artwork that traveled throughout the US and Germany.
In 1969 he founded the Communicative Arts Academy in Compton and brought in John Outterbridge as its director. The community based artist collective became the center of African American art and culture in California’s first majority Black city.
Below is Judson at the piano in Fertile Ground: Stories from the Watts Towers Arts Center 2005.
Congratulations NPF!
Noah Purifoy Foundation was awarded an Arts Education Exposure grant from the California Arts Council for the second year to support our Urban Arts/Gil Friesen Art Day initiative!
The Noah Purifoy Foundation Urban Arts Initiative provides an arts educational experience to urban middle school students. Established in 2015 the NPF one-day arts exposure program was named in honor of NPF Emeritus Trustee Gil Friesen (1937-2013). Students learn about the creative life and work of assemblage artist Noah Purifoy and music and film producer Gil Friesen. NPF provides classroom teachers a Learning Guide for pre-and-post school day art experience exemplifying Purifoy’s ideas. The full-day program includes round-trip transportation to the Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculptue in Joshua Tree, a docent-led tour of the Museum with a discussion of Purifoy’s principles of the creative process by NPF Co-founder Sue Welsh, a nutritious lunch for students and staff, followed by a Windshield Bus Tour” of Joshua Tree National Park conducted by a Park Ranger. In 2018-2019 the California Arts Council (CAC) recognized our program as a contribution to arts curriculum, and increased its award for 2020-2021 to include teaching assistants Kim Abeles and Mark Greenfield to provide students post-visit in-classroom assemblage art making activities. Students and staff return home with a copy of Friesen’s Academy Award winning documentary film “Twenty Feet From Stardom” and follow-up classroom activities. Thank you again CAC for the support and recognition!
