April 2, 2015
2008 Richmond Center for Visual Arts
5:30 p.m.
Olivia Gude is a Chicago artist and educator. She has worked in the field of community public art for 20 years and has created over 30 large-scale mural and mosaic projects, working with inter-generational groups, teens, elders and children. She has created major works in Los Angeles; Madison, Wisconsin; DeKalb, Illinois as well as in the Chicago area.
Professor Gude has received many grants and awards, including an Arts Midwest National Endowment for the Arts Regional Fellowship in Painting in 1996, a 1991 State of Illinois Fellowship for Outstanding Achievement in the Visual Arts, and a 1993 National Endowment for the Arts Art in Public Places grant. In 2000 she was chosen as one of the 56 Artists and Communities: America Creates for the Millennium artists: she was awarded the A & C commission for the state of Kentucky.
In 1999-2000, Professor Gude was appointed a Great Cities Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago to develop the "Contemporary Community Curriculum Initiative," a project in which art teachers collaboratively developed curriculum based on postmodern art and community issues. Professor Gude is also the Director of Spiral Workshop, an UIC-based Saturday art program for teens that develops theme based curriculum. In 1999, Professor Gude received an Illinois Alliance for Arts Education Service Award for her contributions to the field of art education.
Olivia Gude has published many articles and book chapters on community art and art education. Her writing has in appeared in "Public Art Review, Art Journal;" "Art Education: the Journal of the National Art Education Association," "Feminist Studies Journal," and in the Suny Press book "Cultural Activisms: Poetic Voices, Political Voices." Her new work, "Urban Art Chicago: a Guide to Community Murals, Mosaics, and Sculptures," (2000) written with Jeff Huebner, is the first book devoted to Chicago community public art.
Professor Gude is the coordinator of art education and an associate professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is an active member of the Illinois Arts Council Artist-in-Residency program and is a member of the Senior Artist Circle of the Chicago Public Art Group.