Jewish Women’s Voices Seminar: Vera Fine-Grodzinski, ‘Peggy Guggenheim: American Heiress, Feminist, and Champion of Modernist Art’

Jewish Women’s Voices Seminar:

Vera Fine-Grodzinski, ‘Peggy Guggenheim:  American Heiress, Feminist, and Champion of Modernist Art’

In this seminar, historian and curator Vera Fine-Grodzinski discusses the life of the groundbreaking art patron, Peggy Guggenheim.

Through an exploration of Guggenheim’s Jewish roots and pioneering promotion of women artists, Fine-Grodzinski will demonstrate that Guggenheim was far more than a wealthy heiress. Guggenheim’s patronage of twentieth-century women’s art culminated in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, one of Venice’s most loved art institutions.

Speaker Details:

Vera Fine-Grodzinski studied Philosophy and Sociology at the ‘Frankfurt School’ at J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt and Art History at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She also holds an MA and a PhD from University College London. Her doctoral dissertation, ‘French Impressionism and German Jews: The Making of Modernist Art Collectors and Art Collections in Imperial Germany’, is a study of a pioneering Jewish art dealer, Paul Cassier, private collectors and public patrons before World War One. Her memoir ‘History, Memory, and Me’ is awaiting publication later this year.

Fine-Grodzinski is a curator, writer, independent scholar, and lecturer in social and cultural Jewish history. Her articles have been published in academic and cultural journals in the UK and abroad. 

Fine-Grodzinski is co-founder of OCLW’s Jewish Women's Voices programme.

About the Programme:

Jewish Women's Voices is a collaborative initiative by Kate Kennedy, Director of the ‘Oxford Centre for Life-Writing’, and Vera Fine-Grodzinski, an independent scholar and lecturer in Jewish history and culture.

The Programme is the first of its kind at any UK academic institution. Launched in October 2023, the Programme celebrates the life-writing of Jewish women, who are often underrepresented in mainstream historical accounts. The Programme is a three-term seminar series dedicated to exploring the diverse experiences of Jewish women across centuries, countries, and cultures. Further information about the Programme can be found here. 

Further Details and Contacts:

This hybrid event is free and open to all. Registration is recommended for in-person attendance and required for hybrid attendance.

The seminar will be recorded and made available on the OCLW website soon after. Registration is not required to access the recording.

Registration will close at 10:30 on 14 October 2025.

Any queries regarding this event should be addressed to OCLW Events Manager, Dr Eleri Anona Watson.

Please note, Vera Fine-Grodzinski will also be in conversation with Karole Vail, Peggy’s granddaughter and current director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, on 15 September 2025, as part of Jewish Renaissance’s event series. Further details can be found here.