HELEN C. FREDERICK
Helen Frederick is a professor at George Mason University, Art and Visual Technology Department, and Division Coordinator, Printmaking, (B.F.A., 1967 M.F.A., 1969, Rhode Island School of Design). She is internationally known as a print media, book arts and mixed - media installation artist. Since her 1996 teaching appointment at George Mason University, she has developed and established graduate and undergraduate programs in the greater Washington metropolitan region that are also noted nationally.
Frederick is recognized as the founder of Pyramid Atlantic, a Center for Contemporary Collaborative Projects in Printmaking, Hand Papermaking, Digital Media and the Art of the Book. She is a recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence and Leadership in the Arts in Maryland, Fulbright, NEA, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and Arts and Humanities of Montgomery County awards for her creative work. Her solo exhibitions include Indefinite States of Emergency Washington Printmakers Gallery, 2009 Following the Scent, Fine Arts Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, 2008; The View Is Daunting, 2002, University of Athens, Georgia; Scieran/Shorn/: Suspension at the Southwest Craft Center, San Antonio, Texas, 2001; Revealing Conditions at the Art Center, South Florida, 2001, and Under Construction: Relay, Rewind, Record at Dieu Donne’ Gallery, New York, 1996. Frederick’s work is included in the Whitney Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress and Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, and numerous collections throughout the world. In May 2009 she curated Sketchbook to Suspension: Trajectories in the Age of Synthesis, an international invitational at St. John's College in Annapolis, MD. She has participated in over 100 exhibitions and in 2007 her work was represented in “Paper”, Montpelier Cultural Art Center, MD; “Celebrating 40 Years”, Maryland State Arts Council, Baltimore, MD; and “anti-matter”, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD. In 2006, her digital portraits were featured in the national exhibition Faces of the Fallen, opening at the Women’s War Memorial Museum, WDC. She is the recipient of the 2008 Printmaker’s Emeritus Award, the highest distinction in printmaking, from the Southern Graphics Council.
She was a delegate to the International Paper Conference, Japan, sponsored by the Kyoto City Government and the Japan Foundation, New York, 1983; and a major museum project coordinator with Jane Farmer for Crossing Over / Changing Places, a United States Information Service international traveling exhibition of collaborative print and paperworks projects. that traveled to nineteen countries abroad 1993-1997. Throughout her life her passion for diverse cultures and histories has led her to travel to observe the material cultures of many societies, their skills and ideas and to make connections among disparate cultural traditions.
Frederick has moderated many panels including the 2006 College Art Association Panel “Why Beat Pulp, New Paper Terrains in 2007”; “Book Kontakt” The international IMPACT Printmaking Conference, Berlin and, Poznañ, Poland, 2005; The People’s Print, Southern Graphic Arts Conference, New Orleans, LA, March, 2002, and served on Art and Human Rights: Destined to Collide? Panel, Columbia College, Chicago Illinois, 2003.
Frederick has served as a graduate critic at such institutions as the Rhode Island School of Design. Memphis College of Art and Design and the University of the Arts, PA. Her activity as a lecturer, juror and curator nationally and internationally, have her currently engaged in the following exhibitions; International Print Exhibition, USA and Japan, 2008 featuring Tamarind Institute, SOLO Impressions, Segura Publishing, Paulson Press and Pyramid Atlantic; Frederick is curating The Conscience of a Nation for George Mason University, October 2008, and From Sketchbook to Suspension, Mitchell Gallery, St. John’s College, MD, 2009.
Her work has been featured in Handmade Paper Today, Silvie Turner, Frederic C. Biel, 1983; The Complete Printmaker (revised), John Ross and Clare Romano, Prentice Hall, 1989; Paper, Diane Maurer-Mathison, BDD Illustrated Books, 1993; The Best of Printmaking, An International Collection selected by Lynne Allen and Phyllis McGibbon, Quarry Books, 1997; Dieter Roth in America, Dieter Roth Foundation, Hamburg, Germany, 2004, Interview with Helen Frederick; Papermaking for Printmakers Elspeth Lamb, UK, A&C Black, publishers, Soho Square, London, April, 2005
EDUCATION
B.F.A. Rhode Island School of Design: Painting / Illustration, 1967
Teaching Graduate Fellowship: Printmaking, Ohio State University, 1968
M.F.A. Rhode Island School of Design: Painting / Printmaking, 1969
TEACHING/ WORK EXPERIENCE
Professor, George Mason University, 2007-Present; Associate. Professor, 1996-1999; Division Director, Printmaking and Associate Professor, 2000 until present
Adjunct Assistant Professor Printmaking, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 1990-93.
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD, 1981-84.
Founded Pyramid Atlantic in 1981 and chose to direct a non-profit visual arts center full-time.
Working Artist, New York City and upstate New York. Travel to India, 1976-1981.
Assistant Professor of Printmaking, Hartwick College, Oneonta, New York, 1970-73. Designed new printmaking facility in the Anderson Art Center.
Curatorial Assistant in Education, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, 1969-70.
Board / Membership
ARTTABLE, Former Board Member (1996-2000) and current member of the national organization for professional women in the visual arts.
Art Review Panel for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in Montgomery County MD, (appointed), 2004-present.
Book Arts Academic Educators Working Group, National educators group defining Book Arts Programs for academic institutions, 2004- present.
College Art Association, Member.
Crossing Over Consortium, Board Member and Treasurer, 1990-1999.
Dieu Donne, New York City, New York, Advisory Board Member, 1997-present.
Floating Lab Museum, Virginia, Advisory Board
Hand Papermaking Magazine, Advisory Board member, 1990-present.
Hamiltonian Gallery and Foundation, Charter Board Member, 2007-08.
International Art & Artists, Advisory Board, 2006-present
Leadership Committee for the Arts and Entertainment District, Silver Spring, Montgomery County, MD, 2003- present.
MAKING CONNECTIONS, Art as Process, Reading as Content Program – Co-Founder, of accreditation program for teachers in Maryland (a visual literacy program providing six CPD’s for reading in the classroom).
Skopelos Foundation Summer Institute, Skopelos, Greece, Charter Board Member.
Washington DC Print Club, Advisory Board Member, 1990-present.