If you’ve lived in Marblehead since the ’70s, you’ve probably carried Birthe Winer’s artwork in your wallet.
For more than 40 years, every time someone checked out a book from Abbot Public Library, they used a card featuring Winer’s distinctive pen and ink drawing. The library card has since been redesigned, but its predecessor’s is one small piece of an artistic legacy that will be recognized this spring.
The Marblehead Arts Association, 8 Hooper St., will celebrate Winer’s life and work with an exhibition running March 1 through April 12, six months after her passing at 82. The opening reception will be held March 2 from 2-4 p.m.
Born in Aalborg, Denmark in 1941, Winer showed artistic promise from her earliest days. After graduating from Falkoneergaardens Gymnasium in Copenhagen, she studied at both the Art Academy of Copenhagen and the Academia della Arte in Rome, later continuing her education at Boston University and the Butera School of Art.
She arrived in America in 1961 with dreams of becoming a Disney cartoonist. Though that particular dream didn’t materialize, she found herself working as a personal assistant to Mattel founders Elliot and Ruth Handler, helping launch the Barbie doll fan mail club in Los Angeles.
Her path eventually led east to Marblehead, where she met Robert Winer while working at a Scandinavian gift shop called The Upper Story. After a whirlwind courtship, they married in August 1964, beginning a 33-year partnership that would deeply enrich the town’s cultural life.
While raising fraternal twin daughters Elisabeth and Britt, Winer immersed herself in the community. She designed posters and costumes for Marblehead Little Theatre productions, worked for more than a decade as a librarian assistant at Abbot Public Library, and created promotional materials for numerous local organizations.
“It was just part of mom,” Elisabeth Winer recalls. “We never questioned it. It’s like, ‘Oh, Mom’s going off painting.’ It was her outlet.”
Though she won numerous awards from the Marblehead Arts Association, Swampscott Arts Association and Marblehead Festival of Arts, her daughters said their mother remained remarkably humble about her talents. “She was very shy about it,” Elisabeth says. “She wouldn’t say, ‘Oh yeah, look at mine.’ She knew she had talent since she was a kid”
Winer worked in watercolors and acrylics, created portraits and landscapes, designed logos for local businesses and even developed a children’s reading program called “Knight of the Quest,” complete with an elaborate game board that caught Parker Brothers’ attention.
Fluent in seven languages — Danish, English, Italian, French, German, Swedish and Norwegian — Winer brought a cosmopolitan sensibility to her adopted hometown while embracing its maritime character. She held memberships in the Peabody Essex Museum, Marblehead Historical Society, Dolphin Yacht Club and various Scandinavian cultural organizations.
The upcoming exhibition emerged from an unexpected encounter at Winer’s wake, when Marblehead Arts Association President Jim Murphy approached her daughters about showcasing their mother’s work.
“A week or two after, he called us and said, ‘You know, we loved your mom’s artwork, and we knew she was a member of MAA. We would be honored if we could have a show,’” Britt Winer recalled.
The exhibition will feature selections from throughout Winer’s career, including some pieces available for sale. Her daughters are also donating the original pen and ink drawing of the library card to the newly renovated Abbot Public Library.
Beyond her artistic achievements, her daughters say Winer was known for bringing beauty into everyday life.
“She could put anything together,” Elisabeth notes. “She made our house so cozy. That was just her way.”
The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see the full scope of an artist who, while well-known in certain circles, never sought the spotlight for herself. In the 1980s, she helped establish one of the area’s first airport shuttle services with her husband, continuing to create art while managing the business.
“It’s a lifetime of art,” Britt Winer said. “I think now you’ll get to see who she really was.”
