Jerri Allyn, an Artist, Educator and Scholar has an MA in Art and Community. A founding member of The Waitresses, Sisters of Survival, and Debating Through the Arts, collaborative performance art groups, she has exhibited internationally and received a Rockefeller Foundation Residency in Italy; an International Lila Wallace Fellowship in Mexico; and grants from National Endowment for the Arts, among others.
A community-based artist, Allyn is interested in civic engagement through teaching, and projects that provide a forum for multiple voices. The nature of her work moves fluidly between art settings, academia and targeted communities. She creates site-oriented, interactive installations and performance art events that become a part of public life, and build connections with various audiences. She often collaborates and has worked extensively with: performance, incorporating visual tableaus in installations of sculptural objects; audio, radio, video, electronic signs and billboards; sculptural books, printmaking multiples and page art. Her interdisciplinary projects include education programs that expand on scholarly and secular concerns.
Allyn’s community work has included service as the Director of Programs at Venice Arts in Marina del Rey, CA (2011-2013). She was the Founding Director and Faculty Member of ACT: Artists, Community and Teaching at Otis College of Art and Design, in Los Angeles, CA (2004-2008); and the Director of Education and Public Programs at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, in New York (1994-1998); USA.
A champion of holistic, interdisciplinary education, Allyn encourages students to realize their potential through experiential exercises and student-centered, inquiry-based curricula, and a balance of classroom and field learning. She draws on multiple learning styles, based on cognitive and aesthetic development theories. Having taught in several “alternative or progressive” programs in which critical thinking, initiative, independent student directed studies, and community service are the expectation, she envisions a time when this will be a common educational practice.
The Artist has been co-creating Debating Through the Arts: Performance Art Events with Inez Bush and collaborating artists (2009-2013). From Debate to Create: Through a structure of debate, caucus, collaboration, performance and voting that echoes the theatricality of United Nations proceedings, artists and audience come together to explore timely issues. In Spring 2014, Allyn and an Artists Team registered for a Model UN Conference hosted by California State University Long Beach. (See Artwork, 5 Artists Team Model UN-Performance Event 5, on website for more information.) In Spring 2015, Allyn, an Artists Team, and student artists publicly launched Hidden in Plain Site: Creative Referendums to Human Trafficking: site-specific installations in cargo containers, Angels Gate Park, a student exhibit at Angels Gate High School then the Community Gallery at Angels Gate Cultural Center, and weekly public programs in various sites for two months in the Port of Los Angeles-San Pedro, CA, USA. (For more information: www.hidden-in-plain-site.com )
Photo Documentation Slobodan Dimitrov