Beverly Naidus

Beverly Naidus's art life has straddled the socially engaged margins of the art world, as well as collaborative, activist and community-based art projects inspired by her beliefs in cultural democracy. Early in her practice she began to tell visual stories inspired by memories and dreams; she was initially provoked by feminism to find others who were trying to understand the effects of patriarchal systems on their lives. Remediation of traumas (collective, personal and ecological) eventually became a key concep guiding her work. Her early installations about being unemployed, fears about nuclear war, and gentrification brought her significant recognition in the NYC art world.  Over the years, her work embraced concerns about racial justice, the environmental crisis, the climate emergency and more, and she began collaborating with others (artists and activist groups) to strategize and address these issues, while reimagining the future. Her forms are determined by the context in which the work is seen, and include audience-participatory installations, photo/text projects, artist's books, multi-media interventions, and more; venues include city streets, storefronts, alternative spaces, university galleries and major museums. Her work has been written about in many books and journals, received many grants, and developed an international audience.  She has taught at Carleton College, the Institute for Social Ecology, Goddard College, Hampshire College, CSU Long Beach, and several NYC museums and has lectured and led workshops in many parts of the US and Canada, as well as China, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, and Spain. After rewarding chapters in New York City, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and western Massachusetts, she has made a home in the Pacific Northwest since 2003. For the past 17 years, she shaped an innovative, interdisciplinary, studio arts curriculum focused on social change and healing for the University of Washington, Tacoma.  Her book, Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame, explores socially engaged arts pedagogy and is being used to reinvigorate arts curriculum in many schools.  She retired from her position as full professor to teach independently and co-direct an arts program focused on climate and racial justice with the non-profit, SEEDS (Social Ecology Education and Demonstration School).  She is currently developing a new series of healing deities focused on the various traumas exposed by the pandemic,  collaborating on a wide variety of projects including the growing and sharing of food from her backyard, permaculture-designed canoe garden,  while writing poetry and essays in preparation for a new book.