I love learning about new things and places in Philadelphia and while it’s not exactly new to me, I’m just discovering how big and comprehensive the Fabric Workshop and Museum on Arch Street really is. The little gem offers free admission (or a $5 suggested donation) along with programs and workshops. And I had no idea what a queer-friendly space it is. On the third Thursday of every month through September, TransWork — which is in partnership with the Independence Business Alliance — provides trans and nonbinary job seekers with resume help, mock interviews and general counseling. The genderful Rise Choir invites people to participate on Aug. 18, welcoming all voices and experience levels. And on Aug. 29, you can also get a free rug tufting lesson. Additionally, there are several live music performances on the calendar including “Family Snacks” a family-friendly program for the younger set featuring live music and performances from folks like former Portraits Cookie Diorio and John Jarboe. Jarboe is one of the current Artists-in Residency, whose magical exhibit, The Rose Garden, runs through Sept. 29. I had a chance to speak to one of the warm and wonderful staff members, Judson Browning. As the Exhibitions Manager, Browning is responsible for helping the artists’ visions come to life for the public. Some responses have been edited for length or clarity.
Where are you from?
I’m from Frederick, Maryland. It’s about halfway between Baltimore and Washington, DC. It’s a suburb of both and it’s been growing like wildfire! It was more rural growing up. Now, it’s suburban central. My mom’s side of the family has a lot of history there. They go way, way back.
Tell me about your family?
I have one sister — she’s older — my parents, and a fairly large extended family, mostly on my mother’s side, who all live nearby. My mom worked for Wells Fargo for about 30 years before retiring. She worked her way up to project manager and my dad was a respiratory therapist.
Who’s the historian in the family?
My uncle John, my mom’s dad’s younger brother, her family goes back generations in Frederick.
What’s a fun family tradition?
Every summer, for two weeks, we’d take trips to the Outer Banks. My parents got lucky, they bought a timeshare in the ’80s that didn’t end up folding! My mom still has it and in fact, I’m watching her dog this week so she can go to the beach.
What’s the most exciting thing that happened to you at the beach there?
One time, I was in the water with the other kids boogie boarding and people started shouting at me and gesturing. It’s always kind of a concerning sign when you have your back to the ocean and you’re facing the beach and everyone’s waving and pointing behind you! I turned and there was this thing that looked like a shark fin sticking out of the water right near me. It wasn’t a shark. It was a large manta or stingray swimming on its side, which I understand is what they do sometimes when feeding, so the wing was sticking out of the water looking like a floppy fin. That was pretty wild.
I’d say. Did you have any pets?
Yes. Growing up, we had two cats and two dogs. I’m watching Gus while my mother is away. He’s an old boy and the fourth Vizsla we had. They’re bird hunting dogs. My father had one, Rena, that he’d go hunting with before he got married and we had two others before Gus. Mom got Gus when I went away to college. When I get a dog of my own, I’ll get a rescue, but Vizsla’s have a special place in my heart. When I was young, I insisted on getting a cat. His name was Slinky, and we learned that he was deaf because he would scream at night, like nothing you ever heard coming from a cat! It was terrifying!
It is scary. Sometimes, they sound so human when they’re wailing. What were you into as a kid?
I was always very creative and into the arts. My father was very passionate about sports, especially soccer, so I played that for a minute. I have a lot of trauma around that. It was a hypermasculine space, very gendered. I always got along better with girls and women. After a while, my parents realized that I wasn’t cut out for team sports, that I wasn’t competitive enough. My mom tells the story of me playing soccer and stopping in the middle of a game to help a player from the other team get up instead of running over or past him…so I switched to cross country. I never really liked it that much either but I did it until the middle of high school. And I was and still am, really into nature, something I got from my Dad. My partner and I just got back from camping in Colorado.
What was the piece of art your mother put on the fridge?
Well, I actually walked away from art even though I loved it. In middle school, I started getting bullied — gay slurs and stuff. Boys were not always my friend. I got the sense that creativity was considered feminine so I separated myself from any art when I went to high school. I ended up studying art in college, but there were about six years that I strayed away.
I read that you graduated Cum Laude from Saint Michael’s College as an art major and was awarded Outstanding Art Major for the Class of 2016, so I guess you made up for lost time!
I guess so!
What was it like moving to Vermont for school?
It was a pretty drastic shift for me. My sister is the book-smart one. She skipped a grade and was also a good athlete! She went to Bard College, which is how I got introduced to that area. The minute I stepped onto the Saint Michael’s campus, I knew it was the right fit. It was gorgeous, the pace of life was great, and I hit it off right away with the head of the studio arts program. I made some incredible relationships that have lasted to this day. It really shaped me in some very big ways.
Is that where you came out?
I came out right before going to college, well, sort of. I kind of fell out of the closet, I won’t go into it but it was a little sloppy. It was really embarrassing. That’s when my mom and some of my friends found out. It was liberating and detrimental at the same time because in college, I was guarded about it. I was out to a few friends, and if it came up, I wouldn’t deny it, but I was very secretive overall.
So you weren’t wearing Pride shirts on campus.
No, no. In fact, at the time, I had a lot of pride in being straight passing. I look back at that and think, “Wow. I was really struggling with my sexuality, a lot.” I mean I am who I am today because of the experiences that I’ve had, but it took a while to truly come to terms with it. It wasn’t really until after college that I embraced my identity. In 2018, my dad died. It was a terrible experience and I never fully came out to him, which I really regretted. I think he knew, because my mother knew and they were still together until he passed away. But I never had that conversation with him and it still eats away at me, especially because I know that he would have accepted me. It wasn’t something that was a risk. It would have been OK, but I didn’t do it and then it was too late. So after he died, I decided that “Wow. I need to be who I am and I need to do it unapologetically.” So that was a catalyst and also that fact that I met my partner, Kevin. At the time, I was working in a very blue-collar, or green-collar job in waste management and wasn’t out to my co-workers. Once I was in an established relationship, I felt more comfortable about being out in that environment.
How did you end up in that job? It seems like you went from art and philosophy to trash to art and fabric!
I did! So for my senior art thesis, I did a project called “Six Months of Consumption” where I collected ALL of the trash from everything I ate and drank for six months. It was a really wild experience — intense.
I saw there were several articles written about it.
[Laughing] Yeah, to this day I have trouble ripping into a granola bar. I find myself carefully unwrapping it as if I were preserving it. As a senior, a lot of my research was on wasted management, consumerism and capitalism.
When I graduated, I was working at Burlington City Arts part time and still doing research on waste management, which is surprisingly secretive. I got a little obsessed and I found out about this small waste company, Chittenden Solid Waste District, mainly because I wanted to buy a mini compactor to get rid of the trash from my project! I offered to volunteer with the company to get my foot in the door and it took a minute, but I ended up getting a job there. I worked as a trash man at some of the recycling and trash drop-off sites. It was super interesting to see the dynamics of what people dispose of. I’d apply my own critical thinking of what it meant. It was like a sociological experiment. So I had one foot in the arts and one foot in trash, literally.
Unfortunately, it was soon after that, my dad’s health began to decline really rapidly. All death is tragic, but he suffered from dementia, the same form that Wendy Williams and Bruce Willis are struggling with, frontotemporal dementia. The form he had influenced a lot of behavioral things, like we found out that he’d been stealing fentanyl from his workplace and was using it. That was before we knew how bad it was. He’d actually been misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and was getting electro-convulsive therapy before they realized that it was dementia. So they were essentially frying his brain.
He remembered us but thought that people were out to get him. He was detached from reality. It took over a lot of my focus. I was going home to help take care of him and it was intense. He became another person, not the fun-loving, compassionate father I grew up with. He was only 55 when he died. It kind of broke me for a while. I needed something stable so I walked away from the arts once again and worked full time in waste management. It offered me a set schedule and a regular paycheck.
Wow, that’s a lot.
Yeah, and thank you for letting me talk about it. I think it’s important to get rid of the stigma around it and get the word out because it can affect people of all ages. My dad was only 55. I’m still recovering from it but moving to Philly and getting a job at the Fabric Workshop and Museum has been a reentry into the arts and a reentry into a part of myself that I set far to the side.
Welcome back. So tell me about the job.
It’s an absolute dream. The folks that work there are amazing and passionate about what they do. I am the exhibitions manager, which encompasses a lot of roles that communicate with all of the departments from the artists’ workshops to the education program and our apprentice program in the print shop, the studio department and the exhibits — you name it.
I never realized how big the museum is! I’ve been there before, but I guess I didn’t explore it.
Yeah, it’s a little unsuspecting. We have eight floors plus a basement and three of the floors are exhibition spaces.
I saw the promo for John Jarboe’s exhibit and it looked really cool!
The Rose Garden has been a really special project for me to be a part of. First of all, it’s very queer and John created this gender journey, which is her story, but she’s done an amazing job of tapping into core experiences that make it really relatable and very emotional. It’s witty and hilarious and at the same time, pulls on your heartstrings. And it’s very immersive so you feel a part of it.
And I saw there was something with teacups?
Yes, the teacup is the key to your experience in the Rose Garden. You get to choose a teacup, which were handpicked by John and then… well, I’m not going to give it away, but there’s something in the teacup that’s symbolic of the exhibition. You then place the teacup on a pedestal and it prompts a series of lights and videos, audio, cues and it’s like the room comes to life. Each room is an experience. And for me personally, John has exposed me to a lot of the LGBTQ+ community. I’ve never been a part of such an unapologetically and beautifully queer community and I’ve met so many amazing people working on her project, including John. It made me feel connected to myself in ways that I don’t think I ever had before.
Lovely! OK, let’s do some random questions, people say I remind them of…
Recently, people have told me that I look like the actor, Josh O’Connor from “Challengers.” I don’t know about that.
I’ve been told I should stop…
Between me having ADHD and general anxiousness, I’ve been told I need to stop second guessing myself.
Two pet peeves?
When people don’t express gratitude. I think it’s extremely important to be thankful. It keeps things positive. And lack of details. Iif you haven’t noticed, I LOVE details. So when people are vague, I find it difficult to engage.
Your go-to karaoke song?
Pass! I’m terrified of karaoke!
What words of wisdom guide you?
Something my mother always says: “It’s the journey, not the destination.”
