iEat Green - Beverly Naidus– Artist - Institute for Social Ecology

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 located outside the art world. Much of her work deals with ecological and social issues that have adversely affected her and those around her. Remediation of traumas, both collective and personal, and reconstructive visions, are key concepts that guide her work. Explicitly soliciting stories and images from the community in her provocative installations became part of her creative process early on, and more recently, collaborating with others to strategize and address the challenges guides her work. Her primary forms are audience-participatory installations, photo/text projects, artist’s books, and multi-media interventions; venues include city streets, 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. After productive 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, studio arts curriculum in art for social change and healing for the University of Washington, Tacoma, and now as an emerita professor, Naidus will be teaching independently and co-direct an arts program focused on climate and racial justice with the non-profit, SEEDS (Social Ecology Education and Demonstration School).