Graeme Sullivan

Graeme Sullivan has been messing with art for quite a while and depending on the role, be it teacher, artist, researcher, artwriter, or administrator, will use combinations of creativity, information, persuasion and streetsmarts to achieve personal and collective ends. To ‘excite others about art’ is a useful personal goal that shapes all of the positions Graeme has served in over the years. Prior to taking up the role as Director of the School of Visual Arts, Pennsylvania State University in 2010 he served as Professor of Art Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, 1999-2010, which included a period as Chair of the Department of Arts and Humanities. Since the early 1990s Graeme’s research has investigated studio-based research practices. These ideas are described in his 2005 book, Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in Visual Arts, with a revised and expanded edition published in 2010. Graeme continues to author book chapters and articles on practice-based research and these have been published in the USA, UK, Europe, Asia and Australasia. He has taken on many professional roles he is currently Past Chair of the NAEA Research Commission. Graeme maintains an active art practice and his Streetworks have been installed in several international cities over the years. He uses materials retrieved from the streets to create artworks that are exhibited and later installed at local sites. Graeme explains, “I’m not sure what happens to most of my Streetworks. But even if the life of the artwork is short, or the encounter brief, one never really knows the outcome, nor where the experience of art happens. I like that.”