About
Elizabeth A. Jabar is a feminist printmaker who explores a range of personal-political issues in her work including cultural identity, representation, equity and maternal ethics. Her practice is located in the studio, the classroom and the community where she co-creates collaborative and participatory projects with students, colleagues and community members. Her hybrid works on paper and cloth display a highly personal visual language that incorporates motifs from popular culture, folk art, religious traditions, and textiles. Elizabeth’s printed objects and environments embody printmaking's democratic tradition of resistance and collective power and reflect her commitment to art as a tool for social change.
Her most recent social practice project Future Bridges is generously funded by a grant from the Warhol Foundation Kindling Fund. Future Bridges is a socially engaged art project creating open spaces and platforms for community building, public action, and social change, and includes a mobile tent and a series of community actions within the City of Portland. The project is part of her ongoing collaborative endeavor Future Mothers. Using printmaking as a platform Future Mothers construct densely layered objects and environments for practicing maternal ethics and responding to social-political events.
Her works have been shown at galleries and museums nationally and internationally, including Victoria Arts Connection, Victoria, BC, Canada, Red Gher Gallery, National Gallery of Art, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Women Networking, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Pyramid Atlantic, Rhode Island
School of Design, Long Beach Island Foundation for the Arts and Sciences, Colby College Museum of Art, The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art, William Patterson University, Hunter College and The Center for Book Arts, New York, NY.
Jabar’s work is in the collections of Southern Graphics Council, Peck School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin, Wheaton College, University of New England, New Britain Museum of American Art, Portland Museum of Art, Pratt Institute, New York Public Library, Lillie M. Klevin Print Collection, Bemidji State University, Amity Arts Foundation, Tides Institute, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and Maine Arts Commission.
Elizabeth is the inaugural Director of Civic Engagement and Community Partnerships at Colby College where she is designing an innovative program in community based learning and active citizenship. She was formerly the Chair of the Printmaking Program and Director of Public Engagement at Maine College of Art where she designed and launched MECA’s distinctive social practice undergraduate curriculum the Public Engagement Minor. She also served in an administrative role at MECA as Associate Dean. She received her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and her MFA from Pratt Institute.
STUDIO
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2018 Print, Protest, Power, Able Baker Contemporary, Portland, ME
2018 Living Large, Prints the Scale of People, Waterville Creates, Waterville, ME
2018 Focus Printmaking 2, Greenhut Galleries, Portland, ME
2017 Peregrine Press 25 Years, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME
2017 A Distant Holla, Abyssinian Meeting House, Portland, ME.
2017 Collective Actions II, Institute of Contemporary Art, Maine College of Art
2017 The Unity of Opposites, A.P.E. Gallery, Northampton, MA
2017 The Unity of Opposites, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, ME
2015 - 2017 Structures and Stories, Contemporary Book Arts, Artmobile traveling exhibition, Newton, PA
2014 Living Inside These Bodies, Waterfall Arts, Belfast, ME
2014 Art of the Book, Dana Hall School, Wellesley, MA
2013 Local Conditions at Print:MKE, Southern Graphics Council, Madison, WI
2013 The Uninvited Book, Rutgers University, NJ
2012 The World Over, Future Mothers Tent, Totem, Text, ICA at the Maine College of Art
2012 Navigating Currents, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
2012 Print/Counter-Print, Zea Mays Printmaking, Florence, MA
2011 Kindred, Common Street Gallery, Waterville, ME
2011 Dunia Moja / One World, Women Networking, Zanzibar, Tanzania
2010 A Quiet Habitation, Susan Maasch Fine Art, Portland, ME
2010 A Thousand and One Nights : The Narrative Tradition in Contemporary Middle Eastern Art, William Patterson University, Wayne, NJ
2009 Undefined, Desotorow Gallery, Savannah, GA
2009 Beyond Words, Bookfest 2009, Long Beach Island Foundation for the Arts & Sciences, Loveladies, NJ
2009 Influence Someone, American Print 2009 Biennial, Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO
2008 Shelter a Unique Vision of a Universal Subject Through Artist’s Books, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Silver Spring, MD
2008 Art of the Book International Exhibition, Victoria Arts Connection Gallery, Victoria, BC
2008 One Day: an international print exchange, Red Gher Gallery, National Gallery of Art, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
RESIDENCIES
2017 Residency Fellowship, Zea Mays Printmaking, Northampton, MA
2010 Residency Fellowship, Quimby Colony, Portland, ME
2009 Residency Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2008 Public Artist in Residence, Arts & Equity Initiative, Portland, ME
GRANTS
2016 SPACE Gallery, Kindling Fund, Portland, ME
2013 Arts & visibility Grant, Maine Arts Commission, Augusta, ME
2006 Good Idea Grant, Maine Arts Commission, Augusta, ME
COLLECTIONS
Southern Graphics Council
Peck School of the Arts, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts
University of New England, Biddeford, Maine
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York
New York Public Library, New York, New York
Lillie M. Klevin Print Collection, Bemidji State University, Bemidji, Minnesota
Amity Arts Foundation, Woodbridge, Connecticut
Tides Institute, Eastport, Maine
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Maine Arts Commission, Augusta, Maine
Print Zero Studios, Seattle, Washington
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
Roger Gilmore Award for Service to the College, Maine College of Art, 2011
Donald Harward Faculty Award for Service - Learning Excellence, Lewiston, ME, 2011
Learning Associate and Visiting Faculty, Bates College, Lewiston, ME, 2009, 2010
Service Learning Faculty Grant, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, 2005
Donald Harward Faculty Award for Service - Learning Excellence Nominee, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010
CLASSROOM + COMMUNITY
CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS AND LECTURES
2019 Frontiers of Democracy Conference, Tufts University, presenter
2018 Citizen, Artist, Designer, AICAD Conference, Art Institute of Chicago, presenter
2018 Making Space for WE: building bridges through art and social action, Waterville Creates, Waterville, ME, lecture
2017 Future Mothers, Feminist Art and Activism, University of Southern Maine, Women and Gender Studies, lecture
2017 Collective Actions II, Future Bridges, Institute of Contemporary Art, Maine College of Art, gallery talk
2015 Maine Migrations, Past and Present, Colby College, Waterville, ME, presenter
2014 Image Traffic, printmaking workshop, part of Living in Theses Bodies, Waterfall Arts, Belfast, ME
2013 The Uninvited Book, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, presenter
2012 The World Over, Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA, Portland, ME, gallery talk
2010 A Quiet Habitation, Susan Maasch Fine Art, Portland, ME, gallery talk
2010 Drawing: Marks, Traces and Imprints, University of Maine, Augusta, ME, gallery talk
2009 The Story of One Department, Service Learning Pedagogy Workshop, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, presenter
2009 Stone House Book Arts Program, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME, lecture
2007 Cultural Co-Creation: Community Based Education in the Arts, Teaching, Making, Research, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, presenter
2007 Reviewing City, An Initiative of the Office of Public Engagement, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, presenter
2006 Northern New England Art Teachers Reception, George Marshall Store Gallery, York, ME, gallery talk
2005 Creative Tensions in Building the Engaged Campus, Northeast Regional Campus Compacts and Educators for Community Engagement, Pine Manor College, Boston, MA, presenter
2005 The Front Porch, Reaching New Heights in Effective & Sustainable Campus - Community Partnerships, Breton Woods, NH, presenter
2005 Community - Campus Partnership Development Workshop, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, presenter
SOCIAL PRACTICE + COLLABORATIONS
Collective Actions II 2017
An exhibition of printed matter highlighting communication, public engagement, and distribution
For the exhibition Collective Actions II, Elizabeth Jabar and Colleen Kinsella of the Future Mothers art
collective, and multi-generational NYC collective Mobile Print Power, with student artists from MECA
Public Engagement Minor, collaborated on an interactive Print Lab. The artists partnered with students,
artists, activists, educators and community members on public programming. This included participatory
workshops such as screen printing, stitching, and zine making. Through these workshops, participants
had the opportunity to engage in creative projects and explore urgent social and cultural issues. The
Print Lab featured the Future Bridges tent, the Mobile Print Power silkscreen cart, and the Zine Fair.
These three distinct but complementary projects employ socially engaged art practices and draw on
printmakings’ rich history of collaboration, dissemination and public action. Each of these projects
highlight the potential and power of co-creation and collective action as a force for social change and
community building.
Future Bridges 2016/2017
Designed by the collaborative team Elizabeth Jabar and Colleen Kinsella of the
Future Mothers art collective, Future Bridges is a socially engaged art project creating open spaces and platforms for
community building, public action and social change. The FUTURE BRIDGES project includes a mobile
tent and a series of community events and actions within the City of Portland. The overarching goal of
Future Mothers is to increase equity and inclusion, generate dialog, and engage communities in
collaborative artmaking as a tool for social change. The artists will collaborate with educational
communities, artists, activist, teachers and community leaders on public programming. This includes art
making activities and workshops such as screen printing, sewing, drawing and book making. In these
community settings the tent becomes a space and vehicle for learning and civic engagement.
Participants will have the opportunity to engage in creative projects, share stories about their
communities, explore and discuss local and/or national social issues, meet new neighbors and connect
with friends.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Director of Civic Engagement and Community Partnerships, Colby College | 2018-present
Associate Dean, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME | 2012 - 2018
Director of Public Engagement, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME | 2012 - 2018
Associate Professor and Chair of Printmaking, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME | 1999 – 2018
Maine Campus Compact Faculty Consultant, Lewiston, ME | 2004 – Present
EDUCATION
MFA Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY 1994
BFA Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA 1990