Sun Smith-Foret: Love in the Time of Conflict

WINTER 2024 EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

SHERRY LEEDY CONTEMPORARY ART PRESENTS:

SUN SMITH-FORET LOVE IN THE TIME OF CONFLICT

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SHERRY LEEDY CONTEMPORARY ART

Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art 2004 Baltimore Ave. Kansas City, MO 64108 Gallery Director: Sherry Leedy Catalog Design: Elise Gagliardi Find us at: SherryLeedy.com IG: @sherryleedycontemporaryart 2

FB: @sherryleedycontemporaryart Cover art: “Love in the Time of Conflict” Oil on Canvas

SUN SMITH-FORET

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CONFLICT FEBRUARY -MARCH 2024 My recent interest in working in oil paint stems from a deep background in Global Art History, a desire to work with color and light, form and line, in ways different from textile media and Sculptural Basketry. The paintings are semi-abstract with nature derived content from my current location, immediately adjacent to the Mississippi River in rural Illinois. Still Life observation offers another opportunity for delving into strategies of geometry, spatial, and value interactions, and altered perspectives on 2D surfaces.

Spirit and Source are at the core of all the work. Every mark is a prayer of gratitude.

-Sun Smith Foret 2023

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SUN SMITH-FORET Love in the Time of Conflict

Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art February 2 – March 23, 2024 In her long career, Sun Smith-Foret has tackled many different media: hooked rugs, coloring books, quilts, jewelry, sculpture, basketry and now paintings of flowers. All of her art-making has been motivated by deeply felt personal moments in her life.

Her rugs, exhibited at the Textile Museum at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., were based on her children’s dreams. Her quilts, shown in galleries across the country, were inspired by her love, and deep analysis, of movies. Her baskets, constructed in the last few years, were woven as she sat by the bedside of her late husband during his last illness.

And then, after surviving a near-death experience and being hospitalized for weeks in 2023, Smith-Foret wanted to paint. She chose flowers as her subject, and wrote that her still lifes were an “opportunity to delve into strategies of geometry, spatial and value interactions and altered perspectives on 2D surfaces.” As someone who has taught art, Smith-Foret is well aware of art history and is a master technician. But these buoyant and exuberant bouquets of hers are much more than exemplary formal presentations.

They are the protagonists in her artworks, and her personal stand-ins; essentially they are self-portraits.

Besides being used for medicines, herbs, color pigments, and decoration, flowers have been an insistent iconographic motif in art forever. Viewers in the past would have recognized the expressive symbolism of specific flowers as part of Western art’s story telling function. In ancient times peonies represented healing, because they supposedly cured the goddess Artemis after she was killed by Zeus’ horse. In the early Renaissance and after, lilies, in full bloom or lying on the floor, represented purity or the lack of it. The Dutch Golden Age, which spanned the 17th century, was noted for its extravagant flower paintings, representing not only peace following years of war but also as Memento Mori. During the Civil War yarrow was seen as the “soldier’s friend,” and the list goes on.

In the present moment, artists as diverse as Kerry James Marshall and Dyland Mortimer, known for their paintings that deal with identity issues, are focusing on gorgeous flower paintings, and they see them as self-portraiture. They provide a respite from politics, and also deal with the environmental catastrophes of our time, reminding us of the ephemerality and beauty of our own lives.

Smith-Foret is a master gardener, and all the blooms depicted in her paintings come directly from her yard. Besides their beauty, they are an obvious symbol of renewal for herself in a time of transition. The sumptuous colors of her nine flower studies, glowing shades of royal purple, blue and crimson, verge on the erotic; they embody the life force all by themselves.

Two paler, green-blue canvases, “Great Giver Road Landscape with Tree,” and “Still Life with Bittersweet Vine, Stalks, Grasses,” suggest new beginnings.

Deep reds are imbedded in many of the larger works, and their various shades of cerise – from pink to blood red – vibrate with energy. The references in these paintings to Matisse and other Fauve and Cubist artists are deliberate; these works are all about what Smith-Foret chooses to honor, and what helps to give life to her own art.

Beauty, temporality, mortality: these are the great themes of Sun-Foret’s flower paintings. They are deeply personal, but they also reflect the focus of the current state of the world.

Elisabeth Kirsch Art historian

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2024

Sun Smith-Foret artist talk

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Still Life in Interior/Prairie with Landscape Insets 2024, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 36” x 36”

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9 Color Studies Studio Garden Flower 2023, Acrylic on birch cradled ,10” x 8” each

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Color Studies Studio Garden Flower (1) 2023, Acrylic on birch cradled ,10” x 8”

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Color Studies Studio Garden Flower (2) 2023, Acrylic on birch cradled ,10” x 8”

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Color Studies Studio Garden Flower (3) 2023, Acrylic on birch cradled ,10” x 8”

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Color Studies Studio Garden Flower (4) 2023, Acrylic on birch cradled ,10” x 8”

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Color Studies Studio Garden Flower (5) 2023, Acrylic on birch cradled ,10” x 8”

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Color Studies Studio Garden Flower (6) 2023, Acrylic on birch cradled ,10” x 8”

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Color Studies Studio Garden Flower (7) 2023, Acrylic on birch cradled ,10” x 8”

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Color Studies Studio Garden Flower (8) 2023, Acrylic on birch cradled ,10” x 8”

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Color Studies Studio Garden Flower (9) 2023, Acrylic on birch cradled ,10” x 8”

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Red Series- Surprise Lillies and Geometry in Ambiguous Space 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 24” x 24”

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Great River Road Landscape with Pete Marquette Tree 2023, Oil on canvas, 20” x 20”

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Great River Road Thistle, River, Sky 2023,Oil on canvas, 20” x 20”

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Still Life with Bittersweet Vine, Stalks and Grasses, Elisabeth’s Beads, Geometry 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 24” x 20”

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Red Series- Bob Huber Jug, Studio Garden Zinnias, Patterns Geometry 2023, Oil on Canvas, 20” x 20”

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Love in the Time of Conflict 2024, Oil on canvas, 36” x 48”

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Red Series- Crosstalk with Dawn’s Hydrangea, 3 Rivers Farm Field Flowers, Ellsworth Kelly Form 2023, Oil on canvas, 24” x 24”

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Great River Road Series, Still Life- 2nd Story Vista 2023, Oil on canvas, 36” x 48”

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Curriculum Vitae Education 1992

Master of Social Work, Mental Health and Family Therapy, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, MO

1986

Master of Fine Arts, Printmaking, School of Fine Art, Washington University

1983

Bachelor of Arts, History of Art & Architecture, School of Arts and Sciences, Washington University 1971-1978 Independent Study, Leslie Lasky School of Architecture, Washington University

Professional Experience 2018 - Present Independent individual and group artists’ mentor 2015 - Present Project Creator, Manager, Artist/Designer, Riverwork Project. 300+ feet, painted and sewn in segments constructed with additional contributions from 70+ participating artists 2013 - 2016 Admission Reader for Regional Arts Council $20,000 Grant Process 2006 - 2009 Board of Directors, Art St. Louis 1992- 2018 Psychotherapy Private Practice, Group and individual referencing film and art, extensive workshops and lectures 1988 – present Independent Lecturer and Private Studio Instructor of Design,

Composition, and Color Theory 1989 – 1995 Co-Facilitator with Psychiatrist, Barry Berns, MD, Art and Psychodrama Workshops, Ft. Collins, CO, Boulder, CO, and St. Louis, MO 1987 – 1996 Adjunct Faculty, Core Design, Composition and Color Theory, Washington University School of Fine Arts, St. Louis, MO 1987 – 1989 Adjunct Faculty, Art History and Contemporary Art, Maryville University, St. Louis, MO 1984 – 1986 T.A. Core Design, Washington University School of Fine Arts 1975 – 1988 Exhibiting Textile Member and Teacher, Craft Alliance Gallery, St. Louis, MO

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Riverwork Project - Solo and Collaborative Exhibitions 2020

Riverwork Project, The Sheldon Gallery, St. Louis, MO

2020

Riverwork Project, panels, Alton Riverfront Berm, site-specific installation for Alton Main Street

2018

Riverwork Project, The Lambert Gallery West, St. Louis Lambert International Airport, November 2018 to May 2019

2016

Running Water: Riverwork Project and Watershed Cairns, Jacoby Arts Center, Alton, IL, October 7 to November 19

2016

Running Water, Audubon Center at Riverlands, West Alton, MO, October 7 to March 1, 2017

2016

Running Water, The Great Rivers National Museum, Alton, IL, October 7 to November 19

2016

See Water: Riverwork Project and Watershed Cairns, St. Louis Artists’ Guild, April 21 to May 12

2016

Social Justice: Both Sides of the River Jacoby Arts Center, Alton, IL, collaboration with Sun Smith-Foret Riverwork Project, Freida Wheaton (Vaughn Cultural Center), Penelope Schmidt (Jacoby Arts Center) with Christine Ilewski’s Faces Not Forgotten. Extensive Programming.

2016

Vaughn Cultural Center, St. Louis City, Riverwork Project: Images and text illustrating Project process, river science, Black American’s Mississippi River History with curator Freida L. Wheaton. February-March

2015

Riverwork Project Public Art Installation Alton Riverfront Park Sponsored by Alton Main Street 150 foot+ painted textile with Libby Reuter Glass Cairns, August 29

Riverwork Project - Programs 2016

Bi-weekly Outside-Inside Art-Nature, Audubon Center at Riverlands

2016

Running Water: Riverwork Project and Watershed Cairns Jacoby Arts Center, October/November

2016

Studio Tour and Talk for Women of the Kemper Museum, St. Louis, MO, October 4

2016

Weekly Gallery Tours and Artists’ Talks Social Justice: Both Sides of the River, Jacoby Arts Center, Extensive programming - July 3 to August 8 NPR Interview, Steve Potter; Social Justice: Both Sides of the River, Freida Wheaton, co-curator, Sun Smith Foret, co-curator, Prof. Denise Ward-Brown, Filmmaker, Sam Fox School of Design, Washington University, July 3

2016

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2016 2016

Invitational Lecture Riverwork Project, Participating Artists Panel, St. Louis Artists’ Guild, May 3 Vaughn Cultural Center, Riverwork Project: Artist Talk, February 3

2015

Studio Tour and Lecture, Innovations in Textiles, Regional Symposium, October 4

Riverwork Project - Outreach Cedarhurst Center for Visual Arts Quilters, Mt. Vernon, IL, Marie Samuel Coordinator Docents Board Saint Louis Art Museum, Kathie Bassett Coordinator Principia College, Elsah IL, Duncan Martin, Art Faculty Chair/Liaison STLCC Florissant Valley Photography Program, Erica Popp, Program Coordinator Alton Middle School, Angel Weber, Art Teacher Oakville Middle School Visual Arts, St. Louis County Elizabeth Adams-Marks, Art Teacher Art of Universal Language, Alton, IL, De’Al Collins, Coordinator

Selected Solo Exhibitions 2022

Principia College, Voney Art Center, James K. Schmidt Gallery, Elsah, IL, As Above So Below: Work by Sun Smith-Foret Campbell, site-specific installation and gallery exhibition, independently organized by Sun Smith-Foret Campbell and Penny Schmidt in conjunction with Summer Programs.

2022

Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO, Window Installation

2021

Duane Reed Gallery Window and Main Gallery Installation, New Sculpture

2020

The Sheldon Art Galleries, Bellwether Gallery of St. Louis Artists, St. Louis, MO, River work Project, site-specific installation

2019

Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO, New Work

2018

Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO, New Work in Sculpture

2015

Florissant Valley Community College, Florissant, MO, Terry Fischer Theatre, Installation of Spike Lee Jointographies

2013 Fontbonne University Gallery of Art, St. Louis, MO Heavy on Hollywood 2013 Schmidt Gallery Southwest Illinois College, Belleville, IL, Art about Film 2012 Lewis and Clark Community College, Godfrey, IL, Art about Film 2011 St. Louis University Museum of Art, Final Cut 2009 Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO, Silver Screen Quilts: Art About Movies

2008

2005

1991

Belger Arts Center, Kansas City, MO, Movie Covers: Quilts About Film, 2005-2008, including African American source quilts from the collection of Maude Southwell Wahlman, curated by Christina Wahlman Fleishman-Hillard Design Firm, St. Louis, MO, Paintings, Drawings, Sewn Collages, Art St. Louis Craft Alliance Gallery, St. Louis, MO, Apparitions Painting and Sewn Collage

1987

Oregon School of Arts & Crafts, Portland, OR, Textiles

1986

Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Textiles

1986

1979

Steinberg Gallery of Art, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Washington University, St. Louis MO, Paintings and Sewn Collages Stevens College Gallery of Art, Columbia, MO, For The Floor

Selected Two Person Exhibitions 2012

Cedarhurst Center for the Arts Mitchell Museum Gallery, Mt. Vernon, IL, Cinematic Subjects: The Art of Sun Smith-Foret and Jamie Adams curated by Rusty Freeman, Catalogue and Essay

2007

Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis, MO, Internal States, with painter Lucian Krukowski, Curated by Robert Duffy

1986

Martin Schweig Gallery, St. Louis, MO, installation Nests with Wendy Katz

1978

Craft Alliance Gallery, St. Louis, MO, Baskets and Rugs with Jane Sauer

Selected Group Exhibitions 2023

Duane Reed Gallery, Small Works Invitational, St. Louis, MO.

2021

Duane Reed Gallery, Small Works Invitational, St. Louis, MO.

2021

Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, Summer Invitational

2019

Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mitchell Museum, Mt. Vernon, IL, curated by Rusty Freeman

2018

Audubon Center at Riverlands, West Alton, MO, October 25 to December 30, 2018, Water’s Edge, outdoor installation, curated by Penelope Schmidt

2014

Alliance of Black Art Galleries, Hands Up: Don’t Shoot; Artists Respond, curated

by Freida Wheaton

2012

Regional Arts Commission Gallery, The Triptique, curated by Lynn Hamilton with poet Budd Hirsch

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2011

Rockhurst College Gallery of Art Kansas City, MM. Celestial Terrestrials, curated by Elisabeth Kirsch

2011

Cedarhurst Center for the Arts Mitchell Museum Main Gallery, Mt. Vernon, IL, Maturity and its Muse, curated by Lynn Hamilton

2010

Kranzberg Gallery Sheldon Art Galleries, St. Louis, MO, Maturity and Its Muse, curated by Lynn Hamilton

2007

Belger Arts Center, Kansas City, MO, Looking West, curated by Evelyn Craft

Selected Juried Exhibitions 2023

Art Saint Louis, Honors Exhibition, St. Louis, MO

2020

Art Saint Louis, Maturity and its Muse, St. Louis, MO

1999, 2001-2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 Biennial, Art St. Louis, Fiber Focus, Regional 2011

Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Regional

1993

Art St. Louis, Flood Mud, Multi-Media Performance

1984

National Textile Museum, For the Floor, Washington DC, International tour

1978

University of Oregon, Coos Bay, OR, Textiles Now

Collaborations 2022

Duane Reed Gallery, Window Sculpture with Dan Barnett, St. Louis, MO

2022

Sculptures 16’ x 8’ x 8’ with Dan Barnett at Duane Reed Gallery and Principia College, Bent wood and knotted textiles

2003

St. Louis Design Center, Wild Dreams and Domestic Obsessions, curated by Cornelia Homberg, Gallery Director, Steinberg Gallery of Art, Washington University, St. Louis, MO

1988

Craft Alliance Gallery, St. Louis MO, Artist and Project Director, Rites of Spring, grant funded installation mixed & multi-media, with Anna Lum, poetry and A-Trek Dance Company in the gallery and public spaces in University City, MO, CALOP Grant funded

Grants and Residencies 1986

$10,000 from Craft Alliance Gallery and CALOP from City of University City, MO: design and production Rites of Spring, mixed-media, multi-media outdoor events, installations & performance with Angela Culbertson, Artistic Director, A-Trek Dance Company and Anna Lum, Poet

1984

National Textile Museum, Washington DC, For the Floor, one-week Resident Artist Exhibitor, Rebecca Stevens Director

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Workshops – Lectures 2022

Lectures for Students, Faculty, and Alumni, Principia College, As Above So Below

2021

Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mt. Vernon, MO

2018

3D Amuletic Sculpture Workshop, St. Louis Artists’ Guild, June 9

2016-2017 Monthly Gallery Lectures on current exhibitions, Jacoby Arts Center, Alton, IL Moderator, Panel Discussions on current exhibitions, Jacoby Arts Center, Alton, IL 2014

Studio Tour and Lecture Docent, St. Louis Art Museum

2013

Fontbonne University Gallery of Art, St. Louis, MO. Lecture/Discussion High Art, Low Art: Populist Art, Kitsch Schmidt Art Center, Belleville, IL, Panel, New Work: African American Film Textiles with Prof. Treasure Redmond and Writers Center Poets

2012

St. Louis Art Museum, One-day Workshop, African American Traditional Improvisational Quilt Making, Renee Franklin Community Programming Coordinator Symposium with Rusty Freeman, curator of Cinematic Subjects: The Art of Sun Smith-Foret and Jamie Adams, Mitchell Museum Main Gallery, Mt. Vernon, lL LCCC Lecture Series African American History Month, Art about Film, Lewis and Clark Community College, Godfrey, IL

2010-2012 St. Louis University Film Studies Lecture Silver Screen Quilts: The Westerns, Westerns and Identity Formation, Final Cut 2010

Sheldon Auditorium Lecture, Maturity and its Muse, curated by Lynn Hamilton

2009

Duane Reed Gallery, University of Missouri, Webster University St. Louis, Lectures/Demos Silver Screen Quilts

2008

Belger Arts Center, Kansas City, MO, Gallery Opening and Closing Lectures, Silver Screen Quilts Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis, MO, Internal States Gallery Talk

2007

2007-2008 Southwestern Assoc. Of Popular Culture, Albuquerque, NM, Psychotherapy, Film, and African American Improvisational Quilt Making, Lecture/Demo, The Heroine in Western Films in the quilts of Sun Smith-Foret, Lecture/Demo 2007

Midwestern Assoc. of Popular Culture, Kansas City, MO, Psychotherapy, Film, and African American Improvisational Quilt Making, Lecture/Demo

2005

Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis, MO, Textiles as Emotional Landscape, Curator, Lecture, NPR Radio Interview

2003-2007 Washington University, St. Louis, MO, Film Quilts, Lecture/Demo for Screenwriting Prof. Richard Chapman 1999

Blue Mountain College, Pendleton, OR, Lecture

1995

PBS Documentary on Quilt National Exhibition, National Traveling Show, Commentary

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1987 1986

Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, Workshop/Lecture/Exhibit Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Workshop/Lecture/Exhibit

1984

Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO, Fibers in the Field, Guest Artist/Exhibitor

1982

Cleveland Museum of Art Textile Society, Cleveland, OH, Slide Lecture

Publications 2015-2016 Alton Telegraph - Vicki Bennington, Riverwork Project, Jacoby Art Center and Riverwork Project installed at Alton Riverfront Park.

2014

Video and Print Catalogues, Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: Artists Respond, curated by Freida Wheaton

2012

Cinematic Subjects: The Art of Sun Smith-Foret and Jamie Adams, Catalogue and Essay accompanying exhibition, Rusty Freeman, Curator Celestial Terrestrials, Rockhurst College Gallery, Kansas City, MO, Catalogue and Essay.

2011 2010

Maturity and Its Muse Catalogue, Lynn Hamilton, curator

2009

Surface Design Journal, Review by Elisabeth Kirsch, Summer Issue, pages 56/7

2008

Art in America, Photo, page 63, Art in KC Issue, October

2008

Kansas City Star Arts, Bob Butler, review and photos, July 20

1984

Fiberarts, National Magazine of Textiles, Feature Article & Photos, October

1984

For the Floor, Catalogue of the Exhibition, National Textile Museum Washington, D.C. Rebecca Stevens, Curator

Selected Public Commissions 2018-2019 Lambert International, Airport 6 month Installation of the Riverwork Project, St. Louis, MO 2018

Riverwork Project, The Lambert Gallery West, St. Louis Lambert International Airport, November 2018 to May 2019

2001

Gash-Voigt Dance Theater Company production, Sacred Ground, Missouri History Museum Theatre, St. Louis, MO, Design and Execution of Stage Sets and Costume Accessories

1986

City Hall, City of Jefferson City, MO, Map Textile, 3 ft. x 12 ft.

1985

Washington University School of Medicine, 2½ ft. x 8ft. Textile, Physician’s Dining Room, St. Louis, MO

2003 - 2016 Private commissions and FILM QUILTS in private collections, Duane Reed 34

References Duane Reed

Director, Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO.

Sherry Leedy

Director, Sherry Leedy Contemporary Gallery, Kansas City, MO.

Penelope Schmidt

Independent Curator, Former Partner at Schmidt Bingham Gallery, New York, New York, 1985 - 2002

Mo Dickens

Gallery Director, Belger Arts Center, Kansas City, MO.

Renee Franklin

Director of Community Programs, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO

Rusty Freeman

Creative Director, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mt. Vernon, IL.

Stet Hamilton

Curator, Arts Advocate, founder Maturity and Its Muse

Jane Sauer

Artist, Art Consultant, Past President American Craft Council, National Art Advisory Board Washington University

Freida Wheaton

Past Commissioner SLAM, past Gallery Director/Curator, Vaughn Cultural Center, St. Louis, MO, Arts Advocate, Activist

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