BRATTLEBORO — Abstract painter Emily Mason (1932 - 2019) is the subject of a new Brattleboro Words Trail Podcast episode. The story, detailed in a release from the podcast, sheds new light on an enigmatic artist The New Yorker called an “American genius,” who helped shape the creative identity of this New England cultural hub from her Brattleboro farm.
The 35-minute episode features never-before-shared archival commentary from Mason herself, along with insights from her daughter, Melany Kahn, and Steven Rose, director of the Emily Mason and Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation.
The podcast is free and available at https://brattleboro-words-trail-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/emily-mason.
“Since my mother's death, her work has found an audience much deeper than it did when she was alive,” Kahn said. “You can see the evolution of her voice through her paintings. Even though it was experimental and unique, and not always commercially viable early on, she never once strayed from it, and that discipline and self-confidence is recognized now.”
A founder and supporter of the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Mason split her time between Brattleboro and New York City, devoting herself daily to her Brattleboro studio from May through October. “Vermont, especially Brattleboro, jibed in a way that I don't think many other places on this planet would have been such a good fit,” Kahn said.
Mason was part of a lineage of important American artists, though her creative methodology and vision were uniquely her own. Her mother, Alice Trumbull Mason, co-founded and led American Abstract Artists (AAA) in 1936. Another ancestor, John Trumbull, was a noted portraitist of the American Revolution.
Mason died on Dec. 10, 2019 — the birthdate of her namesake, Emily Dickinson, whose influence Mason discusses in the podcast. In Sept. 2025, Rizzoli published “Emily Mason: Unknown to Possibility,” the first comprehensive monograph of Mason's life and art, timed to coincide with her first show in Paris. Mason was married for 62 years to celebrated painter Wolf Kahn, who died just months after her in 2020. They are buried together in Brattleboro.
Mason was a dedicated educator, teaching painting at Hunter College (CUNY) for more than 30 years. Her work is held in numerous major public and private collections, and her legacy endures as one of the most influential colorists and abstract painters of her generation.
Music featured in the podcast is by Marlboro-based duo Red Heart the Ticker, with Ty Gibbons and Robin MacArthur. Folk duo Anna and Elizabeth also perform Margaret MacArthur's “Mother in the Graveyard” in the piece. The podcast page separately features Brattleboro poet Morgan English reading her poem “Emily, or To Light, Once Again,” commissioned for the “Unknown to Possibility” monograph. The piece was written and produced by Lissa Weinmann, host/producer of the Brattleboro Words Trail Podcast, with help from Dave Snyder at Guilford Sound.
The Brattleboro Words Trail Podcast tells the stories of intriguing and influential cultural figures from the Brattleboro area, produced by the Brattleboro Words Project, a Brooks Memorial Library program inspired by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Project has produced the award-winning, community-created “Brattleboro Words Trail” audio tours, featured in an exhibit at Brattleboro's Amtrak Station; introduced hundreds of community members and students to the art of audio storytelling, and published the book “Print Town: Brattleboro's Legacy of Words,” available at local bookstores.
For more information, visit BrattleboroWords.org.