Where Art Lives: Step Inside Studio 53 at the County Studio Tour

I have a confession to make. I’ve never taken a proper tour of the Brandywine Museum of Art. 🙈 I’ve lived in Chadds Ford for nearly a decade, and I’ve yet to explore the renowned art museum in my own backyard. I’ve driven past the place approximately one billion times. I’m even a Branydwine Conservancy member (because I wanted to walk in Laurel Preserves). 🌿

And… this glaring gap in my fluency in local art culture makes me the perfect person to tell you about the County Studio Tour. Even without a refined palette of colorful art exposure, I think this opportunity to sneak into more than 50 studios to see work from over 170 local artists and learn about their work is pretty incredible.

The art world insiders already know about this gem of an event. But I’m here to let you know that we “Normies” can get in on the action too! Let me tell you all about.

Art is everywhere in the Brandywine Valley

No matter one’s previous exposure to fine art and artist communities before moving to the Brandywine Valley, the art world pretty much smacks you in the face once you’re here.

From the Chadds Ford Art Show to the long and storied history of Painter’s Folly as an artist incubator to the giant billboards on Interstate 95 telling everyone traveling the busiest corridor on the East Coast to come to Chadds Ford and see the Brandywine Museum of Art, art is everywhere.

The Wyeth family basically says, “Ready or not, here we come,” sometimes with $100 million glow-up plans in hand. ✨I mean… I’m not complaining.

The landscape of prominent American art history, combined with the very paintable geographic and bucolic landscape of the Brandywine Valley, continues to attract artists to the area. We’re lucky to have a wealth of them all around us.

💭 Artists typically congregate in cool places that become trendy neighborhoods. Does that make Chadds Ford a hip hipster town? Pretty sure the fact that I used the word ‘hip’ makes it absolutely not a hip hipster ‘hood. 🤐 I digress…

Upcoming County Studio Tour

Given the deep history of artist communities, training, and collaboration in this area, the annual County Studio Tour is a natural extension of this culture and tradition.

Now in its 16th year, the County Studio Tour happens this weekend, May 16 and 17, 2026. Through the studio tour, you can step into local artists’ studios, see their work, learn about their processes, discover the stories behind their creations, and meet other art-curious neighbors in the community.

In the words of the Studio Tour:

County Studio Tour creates a two-day event to showcase, highlight, and share these artists with art connoisseurs, collectors, and curious neighbors. It is a unique experience to visit the studios of artists that you have admired over the years. The Studio Tour is a casual way to introduce yourself to the arts and become immersed in the creative talent scattered throughout the county.

The County Studio Tour is free to attend, self-guided, and built around the simple but powerful idea that instead of art coming to you, you go to the art and to the people who made it. It’s built around connection, inspiration, community, reflection, and legacy. How cool, right?

With so many studio tours and artists spread across the event, it’s impossible to make it to all of them (or even most). The County Studio Tour website offers a planning tool to help you decide which studios to visit and how to make the most of the weekend if you want to hit as many as possible.

Studio 53 of County Studio Tour

You do you when it comes to deciding which studios to visit, but let me introduce you to one of my favorite artists in the show: Rachel Coleman of Shy Fox Studio (a.k.a. Studio 53 for the County Studio Tour). Rachel has amazing fluid artwork that’s recognizable even for an art newbie like me. It’s so freaking incredible!

For the County Studio Tour, she’s opening her home and studio to visitors this weekend. Rachel will be hosting six artists in her West Chester home for the full weekend, filling every room with original work: four painters, a jeweler, and her own pieces. Psstt… Rachel’s studio is one of the closest to Chadds Ford, so ya know… less driving! 🥳

I had a chance to sit down (ok… we stood) and talk to Rachel about the County Studio Tour, her work as an artist, and why this is all so important to her. You can check out the full interview below. 👇🏻I loved our conversation, and it’s so energizing to hear artists talk about their work, what inspires them to create, and how they connect over it.

During our conversation, I asked Rachel where she most often connects with people in the community. I was expecting her to name a coffee shop or a favorite local gathering spot. Instead, she said she loves bringing people into her home; sharing her space with others is where she feels most herself. It makes sense, then, that hosting the studio tour is a natural extension of who she is.

A studio tour stop may involve some shopping. If you want to purchase their work, precisely zero artists will complain. Open those wallets, baby! 💰 I kid… sort of.

But money or no money (the event is totally free!), the County Studio Tour is really about the conversation and connections between creators and those enjoying their creations. It’s about standing in someone’s studio space, surrounded by art made by human hands, and understanding the emotions and motivations behind the work. It’s an exchange between a visitor and an artist, between an object and a person’s interior life.

While chatting, Rachel talked about how handmade art can evoke emotion and connection in ways that mass-produced work simply can’t. When you know the story behind a piece, when you’ve met the person who made it and heard what drove them to make it, the work reflects more than a color palette that matches your couch cushions. It becomes part of your home in a deeper way. It starts a dialogue that continues every time you walk past it.

Moreover, art has always been one of the ways communities process what’s hard to put into words — shared fears, collective joy, the experience of living through something together. Art communicates across languages, opinions, life experiences, and cultures.

💭 Have you seen the latest Banksy work? Whooo! Art can do some seriously heavy lifting.

At the end of our conversation, Rachel offered a simple invitation: fill your home with art. Not because it’s a status symbol or an investment, but because surrounding yourself with one-of-a-kind work made by people in your own community brings a richness and joy to everyday life that’s hard to put a price on.

Handmade art evokes emotions that won’t emanate from whatever you’ve grabbed from the Target seasonal shelf. No matter how much you love Chip and Joanna Gaines, their factory-produced pieces just don’t carry the same connection as a one-of-a-kind piece you got from an artist who created from the heart and lives down the street or in the next town over.

Each studio in the County Studio Tour has its own vibe. Some include multiple artists, and others are individuals. Many offer demonstrations from at least one of the artists on display. Studio 53 will have food and plenty of seating, as well as a demonstration from one of the artists on Sunday.

If you can fit it into your calendar, make the event an experience, not a sprint. Come with time to linger. Talk to the artists. Ask questions. Find a piece that stops you in your tracks, and ask the person who made it what inspired them to create it.

County Collectors up for grabs

As an entryway to the art world (or for avid collectors who “wanna catch ’em all” Pokémon-style), the County Studio Tour includes a County Collectors element. Each artist makes one 6″ x 6″ piece that costs $90. All County Collector pieces go on sale at 10 am on Saturday (when the doors open to each studio).

In many cases, a piece of this nature sells for more than $90. The County Collectors series allows people at a variety of price points and entry points to purchase a piece of art. Some routine Tour visitors collect pieces each year; they have a collection of Collectors.

🐦 As the saying goes, the early bird gets the… artwork.

County Studio Tour logistics

The Chester County Studio Tour runs Saturday, May 16 (10 a.m.–6 p.m.) and Sunday, May 17 (11 a.m.–5 p.m.) Admission is free. Maps are available for download at countystudiotour.com. Stop by one studio or make an entire weekend of it.

Rachel is the host of Studio 53 on the tour. Find Rachel and Shy Fox Studio at shyfoxstudio.com and on Instagram at @shyfoxstudio822.

I hope you can make it to at least one studio and find something you love!

Interview with Rachel Coleman, Host of Studio 53 for County Studio Tour 2026