Marin Women's Hall of Fame

Phyllis Thelen

By Barbara J. Euser  
In conjunction with the Writer's Center of Marin

Growing up in southern California

The three sisters walked home from school carrying their books in their arms. The white gravel on the road glittered against the dark green leaves of the citrus grove. On both sides of the road, the trees belonged to the Thelen family’s citrus ranch.

Suddenly the youngest sister, Phyllis, dropped her books and ran over to the base of a tree. Nimbly, she climbed up and reached out to pull an orange from a branch.

“Want one?” she called and tossed it to her oldest sister.

“Sure, thanks.”

“One for you?”

“Yeah, me too,” her middle sister replied.

She tossed another orange.

Phyllis remained perched in the cool shade of the branches while she ate her orange. Juice ran down her arms. Her sisters had continued walking.  Phyllis pulled another orange from the branch, stuffed it in her pocket, climbed down and headed home.

As soon as she got home, Phyllis checked on her art project. She always had at least one art project in progress. Sometimes she sketched or painted. Lately she had been working with white clay. Carefully, she picked up the small white clay horse. As she did, one of its legs fell off. She would have to patch it again. As she mixed water with the clay, she wondered if she would ever get her horse to hold together. There must be something she didn’t know about working with clay. Someday, she promised herself, she would learn how to do it right.

“Phyllis, your dad needs you!” her mother called to her. Phyllis scrambled into her jeans and a shirt and went outside. Her dad was waiting by the barn.

"Phyllis, I need to spread some mulch in the grove. If you drive the truck real slow, I’ll stand in back and toss out the mulch as we go.

Okay?”

“Right.” Phyllis jumped up into the driver’s seat. She was ten years old. For more than a year, she had been driving a tractor and a truck along the roads of the citrus ranch.  Her sisters were older, but neither of them seemed much inclined to work outside on the ranch. But Phyllis loved being outdoors and helping her dad.

When she was little, her parents gave her a tool set. Phyllis learned how to use a hammer and a saw. She learned how to build and how to repair things. One of her favorite pastimes was to build boats out of pieces of scrap and float them down the irrigation flume. She would  run alongside the flowing water and watch their progress, then scoop them out at the end.

As Phyllis grew up on her family’s citrus ranch, she became sure of one thing: she was capable of doing whatever she chose to do.  

Off to College and Travel

When Phyllis was old enough to go to college, she wanted to study drama.  She wanted to become an actress. Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, an all women’s college, had a well-known drama instructor, Maude Adams.  However, before long, Phyllis realized that her greatest interest was in the visual arts, drawing, painting and sculpting. After two years at Stephens, Phyllis continued her education, majoring in fine arts, at Connecticut College for Women in New London, Connecticut.

After graduation in 1948, Phyllis and several of her college friends determined to travel for three months in Europe. World War II had ended and there was cheap passage available on converted troop ships. Phyllis and twelve of her friends arranged to buy bicycles at the Raleigh factory in England. They took a troop ship to London and went to pick up their bicycles. At the Raleigh factory they were met by British news reporters: as the first group of American girls to purchase bicycles at the factory, they were news. The reporters created a newsreel about Phyllis and her friends that was shown in theaters before movies began. As they bicycled through England and Holland, people had seen them on the newsreel and knew who they were. Local people invited Phyllis and her friends into their homes and treated them kindly.

The girls carried all their gear in canvas musette bags strapped to their bikes. They kept their clothes to an absolute minimum. However, they each had to carry a skirt specifically for riding through Belgium. At that time, there were very strict dress codes about women wearing shorts or pants. In Belgium they could have been fined for bicycling wearing pants. For two months, the bicyclists continued through Belgium, France and Italy, cycling between 50 and 60 miles each day. They stayed at youth hostels at night. In the evenings, everyone staying at the hostel was assigned a job. Phyllis and her friends were inevitably assigned to washing the pots and pans after dinner. Europeans had the impression that rich Americans didn’t know how to work.  After cycling over 1500 miles, the girls sold their bicycles in Italy.

For the third month of their trip to Europe, the girls split up, planning to meet again in Paris before returning home. Phyllis had learned that the European Parliamentary Union would be meeting in Interlaken, Switzerland during that time. She volunteered to work at the meeting -- the only American volunteer. She was assigned as an assistant to the British delegation. She worked for the British delegation interpreting questions from American newsmen whose accents the British could not understand.  This was the first meeting of what evolved into the European Union. “It was a truly historic event, but I had no idea of its importance at the time,” Phyllis recalled.

When she returned to California, Phyllis took a job with the United World Federalists (UWF), an organization devoted to strengthening the work of the United Nations.  As the California state student director, Phyllis arranged speaking engagements on college campuses, helped form new chapters of the group, and organized a car caravan of members traveling to Washington, DC with petitions supporting a strengthened UN.  She was promoted to national student director of the UWF and spent a year working in New York City.  While she was the California state student director of UWF, Phyllis met Max Thelen. He also worked for the UWF and was a speaker for UWF events.

Phyllis’ travels in Europe had given her a marketable skill. Not many recent college graduates had that kind of travel experience. She next found a job with the California Automobile Association’s Foreign Travel Department. She was able to advise people on trips they were planning to take, based on her own experience.  As travel resumed and Europe recovered from World War II, Phyllis made many more trips to Europe on familiarization tours to learn about the services available to tourists.

Marriage and Family

In 1952, she married Max Thelen, Jr. Phyllis had met Max when they both worked for the United World Federalists. They had four children, two boys and two girls. While her children were young, Phyllis studied art at the San Francisco Art Institute.  She continued to work in oils, but soon discovered that oil paints were not practical to have in a house with small children. So she focused instead on working with pastels. And, once again, she began sculpting in clay.

Phyllis included her children in her artwork.  She observed that if art materials were made available to children, they naturally began to work with them and create art. They weren’t afraid to try, and once they tried to create something, they were successful. Phyllis became aware that the opportunity to create art should be extended to all children.  

Marin Ballet Association and Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium

In 1957, the Thelen family moved from San Francisco to Marin County. Phyllis’ young daughters wanted to study ballet. She enrolled them in Leona Norman’s Marin Ballet program.  The Marin Ballet needed support from parents and others in the community who were interested in ballet. Phyllis worked with others to found the Marin Ballet Association.

At that time, there was no place for the young members of the Marin Ballet to perform.  The only local theater was at a school: a raised stage and flat seating area. Phyllis envisioned a professional quality auditorium where performances by local groups as well as professional groups could be given. She talked to other people who began to share her vision.

An Action Committee was set up to promote the auditorium. When bids to construct the Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium at the Marin Center came in too high and the County Supervisors backed away from the project, Phyllis rallied with others to convince them to get more bids. The result was an affordable bid and final construction of the Auditorium.

Youth in Arts

Once her children entered school, Phyllis became very involved in the Parent Teacher Association.  She began to work at promoting art in the public schools her children attended. She met many people in the community.  Phyllis was especially concerned about making art available to children throughout the public school system. Where could children find inspiration for their own creative efforts?

Many children had never had the opportunity to see a live ballet performance or hear a symphony orchestra play. Phyllis had a vision of providing a chance for children in public schools to attend special performances of live dance and theater and music. Pulling together a group of non-profit organizations including Marin Youth Symphony, the performing arts program at Dixie School, Marin Ballet and others, Phyllis co-founded an organization called Youth in Arts. Initially, the program provided busses for school children to attend performances of music and dance at the Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium. Performances were given by local groups including the Marin Ballet and the Marin Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Over the years it has grown to include many more programs including artists working in the schools and performances by professional groups. Each year, Youth in Arts sponsors a popular fund-raising event, the Italian Street Painting Festival in San Rafael. Drawing in bright-colored chalk on the pavement, young and old artists create temporary works of art for the public to enjoy.

Visionary

Phyllis discovered that she was very good at developing a vision for a project. She also realized she needed others to help bring the vision into reality. She learned how to bring groups with a common interest together and inspire them to work together to accomplish a goal. She realized how much strength comes from combined effort.

“I discovered that putting together an organization is as exciting and satisfying as creating a work of art,” Phyllis says. Using collaborative techniques, she created one community organization after another using this approach. Bringing together all the artists’ non-profit groups in the county, she co-founded the Marin Arts Council. She co-founded the Dance through Time Association, the Masque Unit of Junior Theater, and Art Works Downtown, Inc., in addition to the Marin Ballet Association and Youth in Arts.  

Meanwhile, Phyllis continued to develop her own work as an artist. She had joined the Marin Artists Society when she and her family first move to Marin. At that time, she painted in oils. She was very successful in selling her paintings. “In fact,” Phyllis says, “I sold them all. I decided to turn to silkscreen printing so that I could keep one print of each of my pieces for myself.”

Keeping At It  

Phyllis’ work has always required keeping at it, that is, perseverance.

It is a trait she says she learned from her father, “When I would come up with an idea for a project at home, my father used to say, ‘When I went down that road there was a locked gate at the end of it.  But when you go down it, the gate may be open.’ He taught me that if something doesn’t work out the first time you try, it might work out later. Also, you may have to try a different approach to get there.”

Phyllis first experience purchasing a building for the arts was with the Marin Ballet Association. The Marin Ballet needed a home. Phyllis learned that the Marist Fathers Seminary, adjoining Dominican University, was for sale.  But the property was too large for the Marin

Ballet. Working with other groups, including a church and a tennis club, they acquired the property. Phyllis says, “My husband Max was extremely important in putting the package together.” She discovered that property ownership was one way for an arts organization to generate income in order to support itself.

Cultural Affairs Commission and Art Works Downtown

In 1990, Phyllis decided to retire from her many positions in art organizations and learn more about San Rafael, her home of more than forty-three years. At that time, there were a number of empty storefronts in downtown San Rafael. Phyllis convinced the Cultural Affairs Commission that these empty spaces could provide a showcase for local artists, at the same time improving the appearance of downtown.

In the process of placing art works in storefronts, Phyllis began to explore the historic Gordon’s Opera House on Fourth Street. This led to her envision a space where artists could rent studios and teach and where some could also live. At first, Art Works Downtown leased the spaces from the owner. Phyllis’ vision was to buy Gordon’s Opera  House and turn it into the Downtown Art Center.

When advisors said Art Works Downtown, Inc. couldn’t raise $2,800,000 to buy the building, Phyllis convinced them to try. She raised one third of the required equity herself. Now the 40,000 square foot building provides 30 artist studios, 17 affordable apartments, two exhibition spaces, two multi-use rooms and retail shops and restaurants.

Art from Scrap

Phyllis has continued to develop her own art. She has worked in many different media over the years. When she received the Women’s Hall of Fame award, she described her current project as building boats out of scrap art materials. “I loved building boats when I was a little girl. I guess I have come full circle,” she observed.

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