Discipline: Interdisciplinary Art

Virginia Beth Shields

Discipline: Interdisciplinary Art
Region: Lakeland, FL
MacDowell Fellowships: 1995

From the artist:

An artist for over 25 years, I started exhibiting seriously in my early 20s. Sixteen solo and thirty-six group exhibitions later, I’ve exhibited everywhere from New York City to Texas to the deep south. My Master of Fine Arts degree was earned at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. There I worked with Lou Marcus, the late Richard Beckman and Jo Ann Wein. Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina bestowed upon me a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. As a student I worked with David Zacharias and the late Judy Voss Jones. I have studied at the American Photography Institute at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and locally at the St. Pete Center for Clay. Other artists I have worked with include sculptor David Nash and book artist Keith Smith. Through it all, I have found a vehicle of communication that is truly my own. I currently work primarily in a large studio in Lakeland, Florida. The back porch of a log cabin in the mountains of North Carolina is my alternate workspace.

Studios

Nef

Virginia Beth Shields worked in the Nef studio.

Nef Studio, the first entirely new studio built after 1937, was donated by esteemed photographer, explorer, author, and MacDowell Fellow Evelyn Steffanson Nef in 1992. Endowed funds for the studio’s maintenance in perpetuity and an annual Fellowship for photographers were given in addition to funds for construction. Mrs. Nef said she had known about MacDowell all her…

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