Marlene Persky came to Worcester from New York City as a newlywed, trained in fashion design and already an artist. She soon began studying at the Worcester Art Museum.
What followed was roughly half a century spent not simply making and collecting art, but helping shape the cultural institutions around her.
Persky has been named the recipient of the 44th ArtsWorcester Award, recognizing extraordinary contributions to arts and culture in Worcester. She will receive the honor Tuesday, Sept. 8, followed by a reception.
ArtsWorcester describes Persky as an artist, the city’s “foremost collector of contemporary art” and a community volunteer whose influence has extended across the Worcester Art Museum, ArtsWorcester, Museum of Worcester and Jewish Community Center, among other organizations.
“Marlene has kept contemporary art in Worcester connected to the rest of the world, and has single-handedly raised the profile and presence of contemporary artists here,” ArtsWorcester Executive Director Juliet Feibel said in the announcement.
But Feibel said Persky’s impact extends considerably beyond art.
“At the same time, her service to this city has also involved youth programs and food pantries, encapsulating the Jewish value of tikkun olam, ‘repairing the world,’” she said.
Persky’s own artistic practice primarily involves hard charcoal and paint. After moving to Worcester, she studied at the Worcester Art Museum, where she counts Sally Bishop and Kat O’Connor among her teachers.
Her relationship with the museum would eventually extend well beyond the studio. Persky served two decades as a WAM Corporator, from 1985 to 1995 and again from 1999 to 2009. She also chaired the Members’ Council Auction in 1987 and served as Members’ Council president from 1985 to 1986.
“Marlene has a fabulous eye, and she doesn’t do things in a small way,” ArtsWorcester board member Ivan Green said in the announcement. “She can organize, she can raise funds, she can do it all, but she has a real gift for getting other people involved.”
That eye also helped Persky build what ArtsWorcester describes as a formidable collection of contemporary art.
She began visiting galleries in the late 1970s and amassed the collection over the ensuing decades. Her expertise has informed her work at ArtsWorcester, where she served on the Board of Directors from 2024 to 2026 and has been a member of its Exhibitions Committee since 2014.
Beyond Worcester, Persky has served on the Collections Committee of the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Board of Directors of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.
Her civic work, however, has never been confined to gallery walls.
In the 1980s, Persky chaired the Kids Fair at the Centrum, a daylong event providing food, toys and Jewish Community Center summer camp scholarships to Worcester children. She later chaired capital campaigns for the JCC and Temple Emanuel Sinai and worked on behalf of the Jewish Federation.
One project brought several strands of Persky’s life together.
At the Museum of Worcester, she co-chaired “Pretty Powerful,” a 2021-2022 costume exhibition commemorating the centennial of women’s suffrage. The project drew on her background in fashion, experience with exhibitions and fundraising and deep ties to Worcester.
“Marlene is a true community leader,” Museum of Worcester Executive Director Emeritus Bill Wallace said in the announcement. “She speaks, she listens, she acts. And everything she does, she does with style and grace.”
First presented in 1982, the ArtsWorcester Award has honored professional, volunteer, philanthropic, educational and artistic contributions across disciplines. ArtsWorcester describes the roster of recipients as, collectively, a history of arts and cultural leadership in the city.
Persky now becomes its 44th honoree after five decades spent contributing to that history herself.
The ArtsWorcester Award is presented Tuesday, Sept. 8, with a reception in Persky’s honor to follow. More information is available at ArtsWorcester.
Have a story tip, community concern, or insight to share? Email Editor Charlene Arsenault at carsenault@theworcesterguardian.org.
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