Janie Paul

Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emerita, School of Art & Design

Assistant Professor, School of Social Work

Contact

Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Office: 2084 AA
Phone: (734) 936-0681

Curriculum Vitae

Ph.D. (Art Education), New York University, 1982 M.A. (Painting), Hunter College, 1974 B.A. (Painting), Bennington College, 1969

Biography

Janie Paul is a painter, community-based artist and educator whose primary focus is the capacity of visual meaning-creation as a vehicle for social change. Prior to joining the University of Michigan faculty in 1995, she taught at the Parsons School of Design in Manhattan and the Brooklyn Museum Education Department. She also served as artist-in-residence for New York’s Studio in a School Program.

As a graduate student, Paul researched the perceptual and artistic development of children as expressed in drawing, which has shaped her subsequent work in schools and prisons. Since coming to Michigan, she has developed numerous projects that bring students into contact with Detroit schools, prisons and juvenile facilities.

In her Art Workshops in Prisons class, Paul’s students facilitate art workshops in juvenile facilities and adult prisons as part of the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP), offered in collaboration with the University of Michigan English Department. Students in her Detroit Connections class work with underserved Detroit public elementary schools, helping youngsters create art that promotes individual growth through collaborative public work.

As the director of Community Connections from 2003 to 2005, Paul led the development of the School of Art & Design Outreach Program, building relationships with local community organizations and helping to launch new undergraduate classes that engage students with diverse groups.

Paul’s painting is simultaneously influenced by her community work and serves as a source for it. Her art, which includes oil and encaustic painting, drawing and printmaking, is rooted in a long-standing connection to nature.

She exhibits regularly at the Blue Mountain Gallery in New York City and various other venues in New York, New England and Michigan. Paul has also presented her work - and created guest workshops - at conferences, prisons and schools nationwide. In addition, she has co-curated 10 annual exhibitions of work by Michigan prisoners, bringing art from approximately 40 prisons to campus each year.

Gallery

Click thumbnails to view full size.

In the News

• Janie Paul gives keynote talk for the 25th Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners
• Janie Paul on Incarcerated Artists, Creativity During Isolation
• 24th Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners
• Janie Paul: Prison Art Essay Published
• PCAP 23rd Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners
• Janie Paul: “By the Light of Other Suns: Making Art in Prison”
• Janie Paul: Proximities at Blue Mountain Gallery
• Janie Paul Participates in Panel on Guatemalan Folktakes and Community
• 20th Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners Opens March 25
• PCAP Art Auction to Benefit the 20th Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners
• Janie Paul Presents at Prison Arts and Activism Conference at Rutgers University
• Stamps Faculty Exhibit at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center
• 18th Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners
• Janie Paul:
• Detroit Connections Receives Grant to Expand its Programs
• Sixteenth Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners