Mary Stanley Artist's C.V.
Mary Stanley's first career was as an academic (Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.)
I researched, taught and wrote on the fraught concept of citizenship/identity in liberal democracies. Those 20 years are the basis for my art. I have embedded my art practice in public life from the micro of local arts groups to the macro of national and international social justice movements.
Educational Background:
B.A. History University of Rochester
M.A. International Relations, Boston University
PhD. Interdisciplinary Social Science, Syracuse University
Undergraduate/Graduate Coursework Ceramics/Sculpture.
College of Visual and Performing Arts, Syracuse University.
Art and Cultural Activism
1998 - 2008
Co-founder, co-producer and co-host, Women’s Voices Radio. WVR; a women’s radio collective, explored the political, cultural, artistic, and social contributions of women.
Produced short radio documentaries and learned to craft sound. WVR was an award-winning program of NPR Affiliate, WAER.
1999 - 2005
Host, Good Society Forum, a program of Syracuse Community Radio. Working with high school students from urban, suburban, and rural schools, produced radio documentaries exploring the life of high school students as interpreted by high school students. Financial support was provided by The Kettering Foundation. NYS Council on the Arts Decentralization Art Grant.
2005 - 2008
Co-Founder, Art Across Borders. Project to produce video and radio documentaries about the application of a Brazilian Cultural Initiative to CNY.
Produced a four-part radio series on NPR affiliate, WAER, and a video presentation.
Financial support:
CNY Council on the Arts Decentralization Art Grant.
2008 - 2012
Founder, Arts Covenant, A CNY-wide project designed to engage people in the arts by inviting them to commit to attending art and cultural events new to them and to learn how to “do” art.
Financial Support was provided by the Kauffman Foundation and LeMoyne College.
2008 - 2019
Co-Founder and Co-Coordinator, Syracuse Stories. Developing the artistic and civic dimensions of storytelling. Organized and held a week-long CNY Story Telling Festival.
Worked with and supported artistic and cultural NGOs in CNY that included a narrative dimension.
Film documenting Festival produced, 2012.
Financial Support for specific projects from multiple sources including the CNY Community Foundation and the Gifford.
2014 - 2023
Co-Founder with Malinda Masing, Know Your Neighbor, Know the World Project.
Committed to gathering and sharing stories throughout CNY and the world.
Funding was provided by multiple small funders
and In-Kind contributors.
Background and Preparation Ceramics/Sculpture
2008 - 2012
I began my ceramics career at “Clayscapes” and Syracuse University’s Community Folk
Art Center both located in Syracuse, New York.
I began exhibiting my work in group shows in 2015.
I am also a painter.
2012 - 2021
I immersed in introductory, intermediate, advanced and graduate ceramics and sculpture courses in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University.
My primary ceramics mentor is Syracuse University Studio Arts/Ceramics Professor, Margie Hughto.
I have studied with MFA Graduate and figurative sculpture Chelsey Albert.
Artist's Statement
I am a ceramicist and sculptor.
My artistic work reflects my life project, understanding the formation of identity in democracies and as conscious animals emergent from nature. My first career was as a social scientist; teaching, writing, and researching liberal democracy as a context for shaping human beings. I received fellowships, research support, and grants from Syracuse University, the US Department of Education, and foundations while at Syracuse University to explore the nature and meaning of citizenship and cultural identity. My dissertation on the evolving conceptualization of democratic citizenship won the Syracuse University Doctoral Prize in 1988. Since 2006 I have been an arts activist and after 2010, an artist, receiving local foundation and NYSCA grants for arts programming. I was the co-host and co-producer of the award-winning Women’s Voices Radio broadcast by Syracuse University’s NPR station.
I trained as a sculptor and ceramicist at Syracuse University’s School of Visual and Performing Arts. Professor Margie Hughto was my principal mentor. I began exhibiting my sculptural work in 2015. I have exhibited locally, regionally, and nationally. My multi-figure sculptural installations examine identity, often through the lens of miscegenation, “race mixing.” I employ chimeras, mixed species creatures, curious and beautiful or abominations, to engage the viewer. My installations and sculptures reflect the cultures and places I have explored during global travel. I live and work in Syracuse, NY. My work suggests that human identity is best explored by considering the relationship of humans to the natural world and by engaging diverse cultural understandings of human nature.
Mary Stanley and Louise Werner: Traveling Sisters Art
They work together producing distinctive jewelry and paintings influenced by their travels. Their paintings featured birds and fish, those intrepid travelers. They pursued training in the arts and have taken art workshops and courses throughout their lives in graphics, painting, jewelry-making and ceramics.
They had day jobs; Louise as psychotherapist and Mary as university professor but always managed to make art and travel. They have shared their art in galleries and shows throughout CNY. Though often squabbling sisters, they're great traveling sisters.
Their jewelry, ceramics, photography and paintings been influenced by the diverse cultures of the world.
Europe, Africa, Asia, South and North America, even airport stops in Dubai and Hong Kong have permanently marked them and their art, celebrating diverse cultures in art, religion, food, clothing, ways of thinking. They travel close to the lives of people. Seldom tourists, they try to experience people's worlds as they live them. Jingling, jarring, wondrous but also difficult worlds.
Decades of travel have inspired their scribbles, content and designs. Each piece tells a story. Like the traveling sister if you're lucky enough to travel, try to get lost.
Group Exhibitions
2015
SUNY Oswego at the Tyler Art Gallery, Metro Center, Syracuse, NY.
“Apartheid & Identity: Race~Place~Being”
2015
Point of Contact Gallery, Syracuse, NY. “SUM Art Show.”
2017
2017 Point of Contact Gallery, Syracuse, NY. “SUM Art Show.”
2017
Clayscapes, Syracuse, NY.
“Student Showcase”
2017
ArtRage Gallery in Syracuse, NY.
“Seen and Heard: A celebration of the 100th anniversary of NYS Women’s Suffrage.”
2018
Tech Garden, Syracuse, NY.
NY Adapt, Public Art Taskforce
“Snow Show”
2018
Clayscapes, Syracuse, NY.
“Student Showcase”
2018
Point of Contact Gallery, Syracuse, NY.
“SUM Art Show.”
2018
John and Victoria Winner Memorial Gallery, Stone Quarry Art Park. Cazenovia, NY. “Forest for the Trees”
2018
Center for Contemporary Political Art, Washington, DC. “Defining the Art of Change in the Age of Trump.” September-December
2018
Co-Works Gallery. “Fall for Syracuse.”
2019
Point of Contact, Syracuse, NY. CNY Adapt, Public Art Task Force. Syracuse, NY.
“SUM Art Show”
2019
John and Victoria Winner Memorial Gallery, Stone Quarry Art Park. Cazenovia, NY. “Emerging Artists”
2019
John and Victoria Winner Memorial Gallery, Stone Quarry Art Park. Cazenovia, NY. “Revelation”
2019
Center for Contemporary Political Art, Washington, DC
”No Hate Show” October-November
2020
Wunderbar Gallery, “Snow Show” Syracuse, NY. CNY Adapt, Public Art Task Force.
2020
ArtRage Gallery. Syracuse, NY. “Re-encounters”, Spring 2020 (Virtual Exhibition)
2020
Point of Contact Gallery, Syracuse, NY. “SUM Art Show.” Summer 2020 (Virtual Exhibition)
2021
Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY
“Last Year on Earth.” March-May
2021
“Stone Canoe” Literary Journal
Print Edition, Spring.
2021
“Artistonish,” National Exhibition Catalog
April Edition
2021
Height By Width By Depth - Celebrating 3D Art”, National, May 2021, (Virtual Exhibition)
2021
“ConTEXT,” Celebrating the Text. National, May 2021, (Virtual Exhibition)
2021
New Haven Paint and Clay Club, 120th Annual Juried Exhibition Spring
2021
“Eye of the Beholder”, Cultural Center of Cap Cod. Summer 2021, International (Virtual)
2021
“67th Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition", Memorial Art Gallery, September - October
2022
Featured Artist January 2022, National Women’s Caucus for Art
2022
Stola Contemporary Art, “Best of Women”, Chicago, February.
2022
“The Struggle to Connect”, ArtRage Gallery, Syracuse, NY, February - March.
2022
“Seen/Unseen”, National Veteran’s Resource Center Gallery, Syracuse University, February - July.
2022
Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY. Member Show. Winter 22/23
2023
View Art Center, Winter/Spring Show
Old Forge, NY.
2023
“Stone Canoe” Literary Journal,
Visual Arts Section.
2023
Skaneateles Arts Council, Art4Skarts, 6th Annual Juried Show, Auburn, NY. September
2024
Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY. Member Show. Winter 23/24
2024
Art in the Atrium
"Eight Artists An Invitational” May - July 2024
City Hall Commons, Syracuse NY
2024
Art Haus SYR Gallery
“The Sum of Its Parts” September 7 - November 2, 2024
Armory Square, Syracuse NY
2025
2025
Stories Untold: The Book Reimagined - juried group show at The View Art Center
May - July 2025
Old Forge, NY
2025
Schweinfurth's Member Show 2025
Auburn's citywide First Friday celebration!
Begins Sep. 5th 2025
Auburn, NY
Awards
New Haven Paint and Clay Club, 120th Annual Juried Exhibition. New Haven Community Foundation
Award. Spring 2021.
Second Place, “Eye of the Beholder”, Cultural Center of Cap Cod. International, Summer 2021.
Featured Artist, National Women’s Caucus on the Arts, January 2022.
