Joan Winchell, art collector, is an honorary Patron of the Oscar Wilde Society. Her generosity in providing funds for the production of Devon Cox’s Constance Wilde’s Autograph Book enabled the Joan Winchell edition to be a publication, of which we are very proud.
Joan is a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada but began her career teaching in Pasadena, California. One of the most important influences in her life was her uncle, the author Dr Leo Buscaglia, who was an educator and author of bestselling books on loving and human relationships. Through him she was introduced at an early age to stage productions of Wilde’s plays.
She has been a book and art collector for some sixty years. Over the years she has gathered material associated with Wilde and his contemporaries and we have been able to print hitherto unpublished Oscar Wilde letters in her collection. Our researches for that have led to some valuable new discoveries about Oscar’s life.
She built up her art collections with the help of another member of her Piedmontese family, her cousin Albert Buscaglia, an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Texas. These include works of James McNeill Whistler and his contemporaries. Joan has served on the boards of several Los Angeles based charities including the Leo Buscaglia Foundation, Five Acres and The Costume Council (Los Angeles County Museum of Art).