Old Girl of the Year 2021 Magda Salvesen

Magda brushes off the competition and wins the Old Girl of the Year Award 2021 for her dedication to the curation of Jon Schueler's artistic works.

No two entries for the Old Girl of the Year Award are the same and this year is no different. Nominated by her cousin, Evelyn Crombie née Salvesen (OG 1959–1963), Magda is a worthy winner of the 2021 award due to her extensive work in the arts and culture sector.

After Prior's Field, Magda (OG 1956–1962) went on to study at the prestigious University of St. Andrews, the Courtauld Institute of Art and she then spent a year in the US as a scholarship student at Sweet Briar College before she permanently relocated to New York in 1976 with her husband, Jon Schueler.

Magda's role as Exhibitions Officer with the Scottish Art Council from 1968–1971, gave her the grounding she needed in order to take over the administration of the Jon Schueler Studio and later, his estate in 1992. Magda's late husband, Jon Schueler (1916–1992) was a distinguished second-generation member of the New York School, whose luminous paintings were inspired by the visual and deeply felt properties of the sky.

His work became visual metaphors for complex emotional responses to memory, isolation, and the power of the land and sky. With inner energies radiating through layers of seductive colour and light, Schueler's remarkable paintings capture the forces of nature and its diverse moods – from calm to turbulent.*

Magda has had a varied career, not only in the art world. In 1990, Magda was a lecturer at New York Botanical Garden and a board member of Queens Botanical Garden and is a founding member of its Horticultural Committee. Magda has also lectured for museums, libraries and art clubs throughout New York. Magda's teaching career has always run alongside her love of the history of gardens and the designed landscape. Her travels have always been linked to both subjects, taking her to countries in Europe as well as China and Japan – travelling being a constant inspiration for new courses and expanded knowledge. Thank you, Magda, for taking the time to be interviewed and to record an acceptance speech for us, from New York.

Magda Salvesen's sisters and cousins were also at Prior's Field, forming part of the Scottish contingent who travelled to PF on the Flying Scotsman in the fifties and sixties.

*Excerpt taken from the Jon Schueler newsletter, written by Magda Salvesen