The Peabody Essex Museum and Mass General Are Taking Art Out of the Gallery

Ashmore’s scarf/Photo by Peabody Essex Museum / Bob Packert

Who says art belongs on the gallery walls?

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) and Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center announced Tuesday the “Scarf Project,” a joint effort that spreads the glory of art far beyond the PEM’s walls—and shares a little of that beauty with Mass General patients while its at it.

The cornerstone of the project, which coincides with the PEM’s upcoming WOW World of Wearable Art exhibit, is a silk scarf designed by local artist and breast cancer survivor Bonnie Ashmore. The piece, seen above, gives dynamic new life to one of Ashmore’s paintings, which depicts a stylized interpretation of the molecular structure of chemotherapy agents.

For each $60 scarf sold, one will be donated to a cancer patient at Mass General. The accessories will be sold beginning February 15—the same day the World of Wearable Art exhibit opens—in the PEM’s gift shop, Images Boutique at the Mass General Cancer Center, and at the Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center in Danvers. The PEM will also host a scarf tying and makeover event for patients later this spring.

Sometimes, as the project shows, fashion is about more than clothes.

See the World of Wearable Art and purchase a scarf beginning 2/15 at the Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem, pem.org.