James Elniski

BA, 1973, SUNY Binghamton; MA, 1979 MFA, 1980, University of Iowa; MSW, 1991, University of Illinois Chicago. Exhibitions: Nha San Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam; Ah Haa Gallery, Telluride, CO; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago; Macy Art Gallery, New York. Publications: Parabola Magazine; Two or the Book of Twins and Doubles; Art Education; USA Body Psychotherapy Journal; Future Forward. Bibliography: Launching the Imagination; Visual Inquiry; New Art Examiner; Odenwalder Zeitung; New York Times; Chicago Tribune. Awards: Asian Cultural Council; Illinois Arts Council; Massachusetts Art Council; National Endowment for the Arts; Fulbright Research Fellowship.

Employing a multi-disciplinary approach, linking individual and collective expressions of social systems, my special interest as an artist, educator, and clinical therapist is how we encounter, shape, and are shaped by the world around us.

Working In partnership with human-service organizations, educational sites, and neighborhood associations, we co-create community based art projects and other forms of social art practice to explore the dynamic interplay of the aesthetic experience, human behavior, and the social and natural environment. These projects typically develop over time and involve symbolic and material exchange activities with members of each community. These activities, in turn, become the contact points for dialogue, which are integral to the work and provide opportunities for examination of the relationship of the physical and social environment.

As an artist and clinical social worker I function as both creator and catalyst—sustainability is revealed as an ongoing process of give and take.