The Rebecca Sive Collection

ABOUT REBECCA

January 29, 1950 – July 15, 2025

By Leslie Ferrin and Carolyn Herrera

Rebecca Sive—collector, feminist activist, and one of the most steadfast champions of women’s ceramic art in the US, died on July 15, 2025, at age 75. Her life, shaped equally by political conviction and artistic devotion, leaves a profound legacy: a public career advancing women’s equal opportunity in American life, and a private collection of contemporary American women’s ceramics of remarkable depth.

Born in New York City to Mary and David Sive, Sive grew up in Pearl River, New York, and was exposed to ceramics at an early age when her mother took her to classes at the Rockland Foundation, where Karen Karnes was on faculty. She bought her first pot in Puerto Rico while attending an independent study session during her sophomore year at Carleton College, an amphora that inaugurated five decades of collecting. After moving to Chicago in 1972, with her husband, Steve Tomashefsky, she became a regular presence at Lillstreet Art Center. There, founder Bruce Robbins introduced her to the work of Linda Sikora, Randy Johnston, Liz Quackenbush, Matthew Metz, and many others, though, as she often said, “it was the women’s work that stuck with me.”

Sive’s collection reflected her activism. She co-founded the Midwest Women’s Center (1977) and was its first Executive Director, organized pioneering women’s services directories, served as Executive Director of the Playboy Foundation (1981–1985), and became a senior advisor and appointee to Chicago Mayor Harold Washington. She later contributed to the development of national women’s issues agendas for Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Her books—Every Day Is Election Day (2013), Vote Her In (2018), and Make Herstory Your Story (2022)—along with her #VoteHerIn podcast, extended her advocacy to a national audience.

Throughout these endeavors, ceramics remained essential in Sive’s life. Her collection of more than 400 artworks reflects her lifelong commitment to championing women ceramicists, with a primary focus on makers active in the US. This emphasis is evident in her deep engagement with artists such as Julia Galloway, Molly Hatch, Ayumi Horie, Kathy King and Tanya Nehrbass Schulze, Angelica Pozo, Linda Sikora, and numerous under-recognized makers. At the same time, Sive’s curiosity, relationships, and travels expanded the scope of the collection beyond the United States, leading her to acquire works by British, Canadian, and Mexican women artists— Kate Malone, Claire Curneen, Carol McNichol, Jane Hamlyn, and Janice Tchalenko; Rebecca Rupp, Sarah Coote, Kaitlyn Brennan, and Dawn Candy; Josefina Aguilar, Magdalena Martinez, Dolores Porras, and Angelica Vazquez Cruz. She also attended NCECA regularly, an experience that broadened her knowledge of contemporary ceramic practice and helped shape the evolution of her collection. Though her mission centered on advocating for women, Sive also collected selected works by artists Wesley Anderegg, Alleghany Meadows, Dan Anderson, Matthew Metz, among others.

Through her long friendship with Bobby Silverman, whom she met and visited annually at Louisiana State University, the collection grew with works acquired during studio visits. He recommended her for the Board of the Archie Bray Foundation, where she served from 2006 to 2013, visiting Helena, Montana, and developing lasting ties with artists connected to the Bray. These relationships deepened her understanding of the field and further enriched the collection, strengthening the network of makers she championed. Sive was never content merely to collect; she worked to correct the omissions of the art world. Her written “action plan”—to recognize, record, support, and institutionalize the work of women ceramicists—guided her collecting efforts. In turn, she built a collection whose depth and range reflects the relationships and values that shaped her life.

In 2018, Sive wrote and published I want to see Linda Sikora wherever I go, a comprehensive catalog that documents 25 years of the potter’s creativity. She invited curators to visit the collection and traveled to see museum holdings, all the while developing a plan for her collection. At the time of her passing, three works by Linda Sikora are now promised gifts to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, gwendolyn yopollo’s scoopbowl service was given to the Smithsonian Art Museum in honor of the Renwick Gallery’s 50th anniversary, and Single Hoo Exploring (2015) by Zemer Peled was given to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Today, her estate plans to continue these efforts by placing artworks from The Rebecca Sive Collection of Ceramic Art at key institutions across the country.

Rebecca Sive’s life reminds us that advocacy can take many forms: through political organizing, through writing, and through the deliberate, joyful act of collecting. During her lifetime, a passion for ceramics guided her travels, provided opportunities to engage with artists, and formed life-long relationships with each addition to her collection. Throughout her home, in use in the kitchen, at tables filled with dishes of food and flowers from her garden, she shared her collection at gatherings of artists, colleagues, friends, and family. Inspiring and challenging conversations at each occasion developed essential relationships. Now, these connections form the foundation of her enduring legacy, continuing to bring recognition to the significance of women’s ceramic art and studio pottery.