John Willis
155 Pleasant Street
Providence, RI 02906
johnwillis9057@gmail.com
802-380-9057
| RECENT EMPLOYMENT& VOLUNTEER WORK | |
| MARLBORO COLLEGE, Marlboro, VT Emeriti Faculty Tenured member of faculty who taught all levels of photography courses1990 – 2020 when the college closed. IN-SIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT, Brattleboro, VT. Founding Director& Emeriti Board Member, a volunteer program offering free classes to area youth founded in1992 insightphotography.org Actively involved until 2020, Currently an Emerit Board Member EXPOSURES PROJECT, Co-Founder & Emeriti Board Member, A Cross-Cultural Based Photography Program for youth from Vermont, New York City, The Navajo Tribe, Arizona, and The Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe in Pine Ridge, South Dakota exposures-program.org Founded in 2004 and active until 2019 B.E.A.R. PROJECT & LAKOTA TECH HIGH, Pine Ridge, SD, Co-Director,Youth Photography Camp BEAUTIFUL DAY, RI, Refugee Program, Photography, Providence, RI VERMONT COLLEGE MFA in Visual Arts. Frequent Visiting Critic, and Artist Teacher since the early 1990’s, Montpelier, Vermont KHMER CHILDRENS EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION, Advisory Board Member for the nongovernmental school in the village of Ang, Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN, Adjunct Professor, Fall 2020–Present |
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| EDUCATION | |
| 1986 | The Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI Master of Fine Arts Degree, Photography |
| PERMANENT PUBLIC COLLECTIONS | |
| National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, France The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY George Eastman House Museum, Rochester, NY The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA The Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University, CT Center For Creative Photography, Phoenix, AZ The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, FL Oglala Lakota SiouxTribal Archive, Kyle, SD Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA Portland Museum of Art, Portland, OR Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME Akron Museum of Art, Akron, OH Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE Fred Jones Museum of Art, Norman, OK New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Archive, Eagle Butte, SD Sitting Bull College, Fort Yates, ND North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD |
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| SELECTED AWARDS & SPONSORS | |
| 2022 | Requiem, El Pasoand Beyond, won Best Message and Best Writing at the Top Indie Film Awards |
| 2021 | INDIES FORWARD Best Book of 2019 in the Regional Category for MniWiconi, Honoring the Water Protectors and the Ongoing Indigenous People’s Struggle for Sovereignty. |
| 2018 | Ellen McCulloch-Lovell Award in Arts Education, Vermont Arts Council |
| 2011 | John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship recipient Vermont Arts Endowment Fund, Individual Artists Grant |
| SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS | |
| 2021 | Requiem, El Paso & Beyond, Film Screening, Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, Middlebury, VT |
| 2020 | Gallery Kayafas, Boston, MA, solo in Gallery C &3-person collaboration of Requiem for the Innocent in Gallery A |
| 2019 | Feick Art Center, Green Mountain College, Poultney, VT Robert Floyd Photography Gallery, Southampton, MA |
| 2018 | Spheris Contemporary Gallery, North Adams, MA Daytona State College, Daytona Beach, FL Tammy Cromer Gallery, Dallas TX |
| 2017 | Vermont Center For Photography, Brattleboro, VT |
| 2016 | Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, VT |
| 2016 | Northfield Mount Hermon School, Gill, MA |
| 2015 | South Gallery, Greenfield Community College, Greenfield, MA |
| 2014 | South Mountain High School, Chinle, Estrella Mountain Community College, Avondale,AZ |
| 2013 | Northlight Gallery, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Tampa, FL New School of Arts & Academics, Tempe, AZ Santa Fe University of Art & Design, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2011 | Amherst College, Amherst, MA Bennington Museum, Bennington, VT |
| 2010 | Union College, Schnechtedy, NY |
| 2009 | Rhode Island College, Providence, RI* The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA* |
| 2005 | Oglala Lakota College, Kyle, SD Nancy Price Gallery, Manchester, Vermont School for International Training, Brattleboro, Vermont |
| SELECTED PUBLICATIONS | |
| 2023 | New Observations Journal #142, Wounded Knee, Healing the Heartbeat of America |
| 2020 | MNI WICONI, Water Is Life, Honoring the Water Protectors at Standing Rock, Published by George F. Thompson Press |
| 2019 | Views From The Reservation, Revised Edition, George F. Thompson Press |
| 2004 | Eye On The West, Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT Recycled Realities, collaborative book with Tom Young. published by The Center for American Places & Columbia College |
| Recent Community Engagement Project Samples | |
| 2023 | Collaborative Class with R.I.S.D. students and Beautiful Day, RI Refugee Program Life Skills Youth Program |
| 2015-2022 | Photographic Work and Advocacy Assisting in the Repatriation of Stolen Lakota Artifacts from the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre from the Barre, Massachusetts Museum Association and Returned to the Oglala Lakota and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes. |
| 2022 | Organized and Implemented a Summer Photography Workshop With Oglala Lakota Youth from the B.E.A.R. Project at the Lakota Tech High School, Pine Ridge, SD www.bearproject.net Co-created Child Sponsorship Program and Website for Khmer Children’s Education Organization, KompongChnnang, Cambodia www.khmerchildren.org Photography and advocacy for the Deported U.S. Military Veterans, El Paso, TX &Cuidad de Juarez, MX |