The artist Constance J. Black died at her home on Priscilla Alden Road in Provincetown on April 5, 2023. She was 93.
The oldest child of William A. Broadley Sr. and Julia Broadley of East Walpole, Connie was born on Oct. 15, 1929 in Norwood, where she grew up. She graduated from Walpole High School in 1947 and attended the Vesper George School of Art in Boston from 1947 to 1950.
In the summer of 1950, she came to Provincetown to study at the Henry Hensche School of Art, where she met Carl B. Black, whom she married on Sept. 9 of that year.
During her years in Provincetown, Connie became a well-known visual artist who worked in many mediums including oils, acrylics, collage, printing, and sculpture. She showed her art in numerous galleries, including the Provincetown Group Gallery, the Wellfleet Art Gallery, and the Cape Cod Conservatory in Barnstable.
Her work was also exhibited at the Tamsin Gallery in Auburn, N.Y., Gallery North in East Setauket, N.Y., the Washington Women’s Art Center, and galleries in New York City during her six-decade career.
Her work is in the permanent collection of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, where she first exhibited in 1954. She was a long-time member of PAAM, and she served for a time as chair of the Provincetown Arts Commission. As recently as July 2015 there was a show of her work at the Larkin Gallery in Provincetown.
Her honors included a solo show of graphics at Pen and Brush in New York City (1998), the Hors Concours Award (1999), and the Watercolor Award from Pen and Brush (2001 and 2003).
Connie also was a writer who self-published books of poetry and wrote plays. Her play Circles in the Snow is credited in David W. Dunlap’s Building Provincetown with being the first play produced by the Provincetown Theater on March 29, 1963. As a charter member of the theater, she also helped produce one of her husband’s plays, as noted in his obituary, and in 1989 she created the set design for the Provincetown Theater production of Edward Albee’s Seascape.
That play was partly funded by an Arts Lottery grant, which she had won to support recycling projects. All the materials used in the set design, costumes, and props were recyclable, according to the playbill. Her creative work dovetailed with her community service as a member of the Provincetown Recycling Action Group (PRAG); that group created a recycling program for the town that is ongoing.
In the early 1950s, Connie embraced the Baha’i faith after meeting the painter Juliette Thompson (1873-1956), who is remembered for her portrait of Calvin Coolidge’s wife and as an early Baha’i adherent.
Connie’s family and friends remember her as a good and gentle woman of great character who was an example to many who met her over her long life; they note that she was a renaissance woman and a strong matriarch who is sorely missed.
She leaves three children, Melanie Black of Provincetown, Laura Simmons of Euclid, Ohio, and Carl David Black of Snow Hill, Md.
Connie was predeceased by her husband, Carl B. Black, her older sister, Prudence Barry, and her brother, William A. Broadley Jr.
A graveside service took place on April 11 at the Provincetown Cemetery on Alden Street. Refreshments and remembrances followed at her home.
Donations in Connie’s memory may be made to Save the Children, Attn: Gift Processing, 501 Kings Highway East, Suite 400, Fairfield, CT 06825.
