Yale School of Art Alumni Panel
Sharon Louden MFA 1991, moderator
Ellen Harvey JD 1993, Panelist
Alpesh Patel BA 1997, Panelist
Chloe Bass BA 2006, Panelist
Sponsored by the Traphagen Fund, the Poynter Fellowship and the School of Art
About the Speaker
Sharon M. Louden is an artist, educator, advocate for artists, and editor of the Living and Sustaining a Creative Life series of books.
Louden graduated with a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Yale University School of Art. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues including the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, the Drawing Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Weisman Art Museum, National Gallery of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Weatherspoon Art Museum and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
Louden’s work is held in major public and private collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, National Gallery of Art, Neuberger Museum of Art, Arkansas Arts Center, Yale University Art Gallery, Weatherspoon Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others.
Her work has also been written about in the New York Times, Art in America, Washington Post, Sculpture Magazine, ARTnews and the Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as other publications. She has participated in residencies at Tamarind Institute, Urban Glass, Franconia Sculpture Park, Society of the Four Arts and Art Omi.
Sharon Louden has taught for more than 25 years since graduating from Yale in 1991. Her teaching experience includes studio and professional practice classes to students of all levels in many institutions throughout the United States. Colleges and universities at which she has lectured and taught include: Kansas City Art Institute, College of Saint Rose, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Vanderbilt University and Maryland Institute College of Art.
Louden is a Senior Critic at the New York Academy of Art in New York City where she organizes a popular Lecture Series, interviewing luminaries and exceptional individuals in the art world and from afar. View more information for the current schedule.
Louden is also active on boards and committees of various not-for-profit art organizations and volunteers her time to artists to further their careers. Sharon is also a consultant for the Joan Mitchell Foundation, advising their grantees, and conducts webinars and consultations for Creative Capital Foundation. She has also contributed to the National Endowment for the Art’s Creativity Connects campaign.
In addition to teaching in colleges and universities, she continues to conduct Glowtown workshops in schools and not-for-profit organizations across the country.
She is also the editor of Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Essays by 40 Working Artists published by Intellect Books and distributed by the University of Chicago Press.
Published in October, 2013, the book is now in its seventh printing. With sales in over 18 countries, it has become Intellect Book’s #1 best selling publication two years in a row. The book has been translated into Korean, garnered over 45 reviews, the subject of 15 podcasts and radio appearances and received more individual feedback than can be counted. Read selected press and information on the book.
From September, 2013 until late May, 2015, Louden went on a 62-stop book tour, where she met thousands of artists from all over the US. Some of the venues who participated included LACMA, the Hirshhorn Museum, Strand Bookstore, Art Basel Miami Beach, the 92nd St Y in New York City, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and many others.
The Artist as Culture Producer: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life, Louden’s second book, has been published and launched at the Strand Book Store in New York City on March 2, 2017 as a part of an extensive book tour.
The Ford Foundation has endorsed the The Artist as Culture Producer Conversation Tour with fiscal support for events that cross-pollinate book contributors with local artists in communities who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to participate.
The last book in the trilogy of Living and Sustaining a Creative Life books, Last Artist Standing, will be published in 2020.
Louden is the recipient of the 2017-2018 Sharpe-Walentas Foundation yearlong rent-free studio space award in DUMBO, Brooklyn which will begin in September, 2017 and conclude in August, 2018.
Sharon is a full-time practicing, professional artist who lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, NY.