Evelyn Ackerman

Evelyn Ackerman (née Lipton) was born in Detroit, Michigan, on January 12, 1924—exactly 100 years before the opening of this exhibition. She studied at the University of Michigan and earned a BFA and an MFA from Wayne University. In 1948, Evelyn met Jerry Ackerman, and they embarked on a lifelong partnership. Inspired by Charles and Ray Eames, the couple moved to Los Angeles in 1952 and opened a studio there to sell affordable home accessories, starting with ceramics and mosaics. In 1956, they founded ERA Industries, a successful manufacturing company that employed a team of Mexican-based artisans to execute Evelyn’s tapestry and mosaic designs. They opened their first showroom in 1959, expanding to a larger space in 1964 at the heart of the California design trade. Evelyn’s work was included in every edition of the California Design series, organized by the Pasadena Art Museum from 1954 to 1976. Her aesthetic interests were whimsical and diverse, ranging from her production of DIY finger puppet kits (featured in California Design 9 in 1965) to authoring books on the history of dolls and their clothing and houses. In the 1980s, Evelyn completed her final masterwork, Stories from the Bible, an exquisite series of 40 cloisonné enamels, now in the collection of the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum.