User:Echo Rococo/Linda Fernandez

Linda Fernandez is an Artist, Educator and Advocate for public arts education. She is co-founder, and faculty member at Amber Art & Design, an artist collective focused on community engagement through public art based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She serves on the PhillyCAM board of directors (2015-2017). She is the Project Director of the Picasso Project in Philadelphia, which provides funding for arts education in under-served Philadelphia schools.

Education
"Fernandez has a multicultural Latina and Jewish background." She is a 2005 graduate of Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. She studied contemporary art in Nicaragua and Guatemala. In 2008-2009 she attended Metafora Taller de Arte Contemporaneo (Metafora School of Contemporary Art) in Barcelona, Spain, where she exhibited work in the 2008 winter exhibition Fill this space.

Career
"Fernandez has lived and worked in Barcelona, Spain and Managua, Nicaragua, where she used art to engage people from impoverished neighborhoods to voice the needs of their community."

Fernandez is an Art Advocate and Project Director of the Picasso Project in Philadelphia, which is supported by Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY). Since its creation in 2002, the Picasso Project has given more half a million dollars in grants to under-served schools in the Philadelphia area. More than 35,000 students in have Philadelphia received arts education in school as a result. Her work focuses on improving access to arts programs through education and advocacy.

The following is a direct quote, and needs to be rewritten in your own words so as not to be a copyright violation: "Prior to joining PCCY, Linda was the Manager of Children and Youth Programs at Fleisher Art Memorial where she oversaw 4 award-winning programs, managing a team of 2 staff and 30 teaching artists who engage more than 2,000 students each year providing visual art instruction in both onsite and public school settings. She also worked as a teaching artist with The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, The Clay Studio’s Claymobile, Fleisher Art Memorial and was a 5th grade teacher at Alliance for Progress Charter School."

In 2010 Linda returned to Philadelphia where she is a faculty member at Amber Art & Design, working in the public art sphere within marginalized communities with little or no access to art. "She has been working as a teaching artist and engaging members of the Hispanic community through creative workshops."

Work
"She transforms everyday materials such as magazine paper, soda cans, and plastic bags, to create jewelry, accessories and textiles. Her use of recycled materials reflects on the urban experience and gives the detritus of the street new life."

Public Murals
Teaching artist for The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, need info, and wondering, include list of a notable public murals?

Symposia

 * 2016, Shifting Narratives, Rethinking the Past to Understand the Present

Residencies

 * "Village Table" Artist residency with The Village of Arts and Humanities. http://villagespaces.tumblr.com/


 * "CHEWIE" Community Health Education Workshop Inter-generational Exchange. Center for the Emerging Visual Artist, New Courtland Germantown, PA. Life Center and Kephera Charter School.


 * "Dreamland Deferred" Living Arts (Tulsa Oklahoma).

Major exhibitions

 * 2013, Amber Art Collective Exhibit


 * 2013, Creative Powers: Selections from Art Ability at Delaware Museum of Art This reference doesn't mention her; try to find something that lists her among the artists involved.


 * 2012, Adirondack Chairs- UPENN & Morris Arboretum


 * 2012, Softer Edges- Exhibition Description, Fleisher Art Memorial

Awards

 * 2015 Creative Placemaking Grant
 * 2015 Leeway Art & Change Grant recipient (with Anne Harrison)