Amy Schmierbach is an artist, instructor, and activist. Her main goal in art and teaching is to empower others through art making and to help foster individuals to visually communicate their ideas in the studio, in the classroom, and in the community. Since 2000 Amy has taught drawing, foundations, and a multitude of other studio and general education courses at Fort Hays State University. Amy received a BFA from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville and a MFA from Illinois State University in Printmaking. In 2011, Amy received the prestigious President’s Distinguished Scholar Award for her dedication to research at FHSU. In 2019 Amy received a Master Educator Award for Foundations in Art Theory and Education FATE for her dedication to innovative teaching in the art studio classroom. Amy has exhibited her work across North America and has received many grants to help support her practice. Community outreach and service learning are both highly personal objectives for Amy. In today’s society, it is the artist’s responsibility to bring art to the community and to educate the public about art. Living in the rural Midwest this is even more important. This activism is an important objective she brings to her students. Amy believes that we cannot just teach art as a stand-alone skill. Skill is important but ART also has to be valued in our society. Amy and her students regularly work with local community organizations, school districts, senior living centers, and children and adults with intellectual and developmental needs.
Amy’s creativity activity reaches into both personal and social practice. Each of these practices inform each other and need each other to thrive. Society’s continual search for inner balance and work/life balance are main themes in her work. She uses formalized and repetitive processes such as printmaking, drawing, weaving, and embroidery that convey meditative rituals. These are also the techniques she brings into her social practice work with the hope to stimulate more mindfulness and peace in the community.