Muriel Sibell Wolle

Who is Muriel Sibell Wolle?

Muriel Sibell Wolle was an American artist best known for her drawings and paintings of mining communities in the western states.

She graduated from the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts in 1920 with diplomas in advertising and costume design. After graduation, she accepted a teaching in position at the Texas State College for Women in Denton, Texas, but returned to New York. An instructor in Art at the Parson School of Design from 1923-1926, Sibell began looking for a teaching position in the West. She received a B.S. in Art Education from New York University, and later received an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Colorado. She was head of the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Colorado from 1927 to 1947, teaching and adding many options to the department while presiding over its extraordinary growth.

She was not only the grande dame of the Fine Arts Department during the first half of the 20th century, but also an early champion of civil rights, accepting minorities into the FA program when some other programs informally declined to do so. During WWII, she mentored and championed the first black member of the fine arts honorary, Dolores Hale, and invited her to her home on many occasions during a time in Boulder when interracial socializing happened very rarely.