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Return to: Bonnie Ora Sherk Biography
Bonnie Sherk, W.B.E. in San Francisco and San Jose, and Founder & Director of Life Frames, Inc., is an environmental architect, planner, and educator with over 25 years experience in conceiving, planning, designing, and developing, site and culturally sensitive, indoor / outdoor, themed, multi-culture / ecology / technology park environments that are integrated with vibrant community programming, relevant interdisciplinary project-based curricula linkages to schools (PreK-College), and community-originiated products.
Ms. Sherk's systemic designs often include innovative funding opportunites and mechanisms for generation of revenue, as well as sustainable, organizational, maintenance, and management strategies. Sherk's work integrates extensive community involvement resulting in a social weaving of all sectors of community, often through the creation of Community Research Mentoring Teams. Projects result in innovative community and economic development strategies that give heightened visibility to a locale and meaningfully synergize local resources: human, ecological, economic, historic, technological, & aesthetic.
Examples include:
Creator of the nationally recognized, Living Library / Life Frame / Think Park concepts & content-rich systemic plans for different sites around country that include innovative community processes, programs, and curricula as well as funding, maintenance, & management strategies for community. Provides economic revitalization & enhancement for area including extensive community involvement & high visibility for locale. Sherk's Living Library Model was recently nominated by Steve Jobs of Apple Computers, Inc. for a Smithsonian Computerworld Award in the category of "Environment, Agriculture, & Energy" and was suggested by the Secretary General of the United Nations Habitat 11 Programme to become part of the "World's Best Practices & Local Leadership of Habitat 11".
ASLA award - Guadalupe Gardens, San Jose, member Master Planning Design Team for 150 acre park adjacent to San Jose International Airport. Responsible for community and resource programming with integration of state-of-the-art communications technologies. Identified & involved extensive local community including schools in planning process & ongoing programs.
Lincoln Unified School District, Stockton, California, member, Master Planning Design Team for new campus with integrated programs & curricula for students & community. Project considered state- of-the-art model for national educational reform, campus design, & community involvement.
Award -Winning, Crossroads Community (the farm) resulted in new
7 acre inner- city Farm Park in San Francisco - Potrero del Sol & community environmental education & arts center integrating land fragments (DPW, Rec- Park, private owners) adjacent to major Freeway interchange. Sherk was creator of concept & Founding Director/President of 501C3 non-profit that initiated the project and involved local surrounding communities in process. Project generated extensive national & international coverage and became model for other community projects.
EDUCATION
M.A. San Francisco State University, Environmental Sculpture
Certificate, Landscape Architecture, University of California, S.F.
Teaching Credentials: New York, New Jersey, California (K-12)
B.A. Rutgers University, Douglass College-Art (Honors)
Certificate - Oomoto School of Traditional Japanese Arts- Kameoka, Japan
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2002 San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
2000 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1999 Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
National Television Broadcast, Excerpts from Public Lunch (1971), Japan
Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
J.F. Kennedy University Gallery, Berkeley, CA
1998 MAK - Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria
Museu d'Art Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain
The Museum of Contemporary Art at The Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA.
1996 Canessa Gallery, San Francisco, CA
l995 DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA
Art Institue of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Exit Art, New York, NY
l994 Artist's Space, New York, NY
l99l San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
Kingsborough Community College, Brooklyn, NY
l987 Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, CA
l986 New Music America, Houston Festival, Houston, TX
Central Hall Gallery, New York, NY
Snug Harbor Visual Arts Center, Staten Island, NY
l985 Eyes & Ears Foundation, Club Nine, San Francisco, CA
The Palladium, New York, NY
A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY
Exit Art, New York, NY
l984 Castello Di Arechi, Salerno, Italy
L'Intervention Performance Festival, Quebec, Canada
Sculpture Center, New York, NY
Franklin Furnace, New York, NY
New York Public Library (Tompkins Square), NY
Taller Latin Americano, New York, NY
Danceteria, New York, NY
l983 Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, West Germany
Woodland Pattern, Milwaukee, WI
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
l982 International Sculpture Conference, Oakland, CA
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
Sky over Bay Area, Election Day, San Francisco, CA
Fashion Moda, Bronx, NY
Tyler School of Art Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY
Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York, NY
Public Image Gallery, New York, NY
P.S.I, Long Island City, NY
SUNY, Binghamton, NY
l98l HIGH PERFORMANCE Magazine, Cover Piece, International Distribution
Gowanus Memorial Art Yard, Brooklyn, NY
l980 Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
l979 Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
l977 The Floating Museum, San Francisco, CA
l976 San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
THE FARM, San Francisco, CA
Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, CA
l975 The Women's Building, Los Angeles, CA
Hayward State College Art Gallery, Hayward, CA
City Hall, San Francisco, CA
l974 Superior Court, San Francisco, CA
University of California, Davis, CA
San Jose State College Art Gallery, San Jose, CA
Andy's Donuts, San Francisco, CA
l973 San Francisco Art Commission Festival, San Francisco, CA
Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, CA
DeSaisset Art Museum, Santa Clara, CA
l972 Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
l97l University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, CA
Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
Lion House, San Francisco Zoo, San Francisco, CA
l970 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Gallery Reese Palley, San Francisco, CA
Various sidewalk sites; Construction Site, San Francisco, CA
Golden Gate Bridge; Freeway & Street Sites, San Francisco, CA
Various Cages, San Francisco Zoo, San Francisco, CA
AWARDS, HONORS, & SELECTED GRANTS
2003 California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection for OMI/Excelsior Living Library & Think Park
2003 The Ford Foundation for OMI / Excelsior Living Library & Think Park (San Francisco) and Roosevelt Island Living Librayr & Think Park (NYC) Programs
2002-04 Mayor's Office of Children, Youth, and Families for OMI / Excelsior & South Bernal Heights Living Library & Think Park Programs
2002-04 Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Beautification for OMI / Excelsior Living Library & Think Park
2002 SF Art Commission for OMI / Excelsior Living Library & Think Park
2002 SF Mayor's Office of Community Development to develop Conceptual Master Plan for South Bernal Heights Living Library & Think Park
2001 SF Mayor's Office of Community Development to develop Conceptual Master Plan for OMI / Excelsior Living Library & Think Park
2000 Named a Laureate of the Smithsonian Institution for A Living Library
2000 A Living Library becomes part of the permanent research collection of Smithsonian's Museum of American History and featured on the Smithsonian Computerworld Website
2000 A Living Library & Life Frames, Inc. nominated for Smithsonian Computerworld Award in the category of "Environment, Energy, & Agriculture" by Steve Jobs of Apple Computers, Inc.
2000 San Francisco Beautiful Grant - OMI / Excelsior Living Library & Think Park
1999 Named "Outstanding Healing Artist of the Arts & Healing Network for the Year 2001" by Marion Rockefeller Weber, Founder & Director, Arts & Healing Network
1999 Miranda Lux Foundation - OMI / Excelsior Living Library & Think Park
1999; 00; 01 Potrero Nuevo Fund of the Tides Foundaton - OMI / Excelsior Living Library & Think Park Program
1996-97 San Francisco Foundation Grant - Civic Center Living Library Project
1996-97 Columbia Foundation Grant for Civic Center Living Library Project
1996 "Biennial Honor Award, ASLA, l995 (Northern California Chapter) - "Building & Community" - for Guadalupe Gardens Master Plan, San Jose. Member Design Team with Tito Patri
1993 Member design team, St. Vincent's/Silveira Ranch, New Sustainable Living `Learning Community As A Life Frame, San Rafael, California, 3rd place, National Competition
l987 Redesign of Todos Santos Plaza- Concord, Ca. National Competition, Runner-Up Winner. Collaboration with Mark Bunnell, ASLA
l980; 1975 NEA Individual Artist's Fellowships
l975-79 CAC Grants
1977 San Francisco Tomorrow Environment Award
1976-79 NEA Grants: Expansion Arts, Architecture & Environmental Arts, City Spirit, Visual Arts
1974-80 Numerous Foundation Grants for THE FARM
1975-79 California Arts Council Project Grants
1973 San Francisco Art Commission Merit Award
1970 MADEMOISELLE MAGAZINE Woman of the Year Award
1970 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art SECA Award
SELECTED TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Teacher Staff Development & Student Training - James Denman M.S., Balboa H.S., San Miguel Child Development Center, Junipero Serra Child Development Center S.F., Ca. Roosevelt Island School, R. Is., NY
Instructor - San Francisco Institute of Architecture, San Francisco, CA
Graduate Mentor / Instructor - Arts & Consciousness Graduate Program, JFK University, Berkely, CA
Sculptor-In-Residence - Tyler School of Art, Temple Univ., Philadelphia, PA
Dartington College, Totnes, England
California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, CA
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
Antioch College West, San Francisco, CA
Credentialed Teacher in elementary & secondary schools for all populations including at-risk, special education, and physically handicapped students in New York City, New Jersey, California.
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