Resume

1406 Pennsylvania Avenue, Durham NC 27705

Website: ediecohn.com   

Email: edie.cohn@gmail.com

Golden Belt Campus, Studio 11 

800 S Taylor Street, Durham NC 27701

Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, 3rd Annual National Juried Exhibition, Juror: John Dalton, Internationally famous Irish artist—podcast ‘Gently does it”, Oct 2019

SOHO20, “Out of Our Minds”, (SOHO20 is a co-op feminist organization that has been active in NYC since the early 70s), National Affiliate Member, NYC, June 2019

SOHO20, “The Story I Tell Myself”, National Affiliate Member, NYC, June 2018

The Carrack Modern Art, “Center/Gallery: Feminist Legacy, Feminist Future”, (C/G is a co-op   feminist org that was active in CH and Carrboro from 1977-84), Durham NC, Mar 2015

The Carrack Modern Art, “R.E.C.A.P.”, celebration of their 2015 season, Durham NC, Oct 2015 Durham Art Guild, “Face-to-Face”, Juried Portraiture Exhibition, juror: Beverly McIver,

SunTrust Endowed Chair Professor of Art at NCCU, Durham NC, Mar 2014

Durham Art Guild,  59^th Annual Juried Art Show, juror: Edie Carpenter, Director of the Curatorial and Artists Programs at Greenhill, Greensboro NC, Durham NC, Oct 2013

Private Home: Melissa Soloman, “Creating Julie—Meet the Artists”, Durham NC, April 2013

Skylight Gallery, “Now and Then, A Reunion: Center/Gallery & Friends”

Hillsborough NC, April 2013

Chamber Arts, “That Which I Love”, juror: Lyric Montgomery Kinard—recipient of the International Association of Professional Quilters 2011 Teacher of the Year,

Cary NC, June 2012

Durham Art Guild,  57^th Annual Juried Art Show, juror: Linda Johnson Dougherty of the NC Museum of Art, Durham NC, Dec 2011                                                         

Exotique Gallery, Durham NC, Oct 2011

Gallery 110, “Generating Art—the Steudel Family”, Plymouth WI, Aug 2011

Seymour Center, “Strength of Character”, Chapel Hill NC, Nov 2010

Pop’s Restaurant, An Ongoing Exhibit of Travel and Animal Paintings--plus The Homeless

People Exhibit: “A Life Worth Mentioning.. . .” Durham NC, 2010-2014

The Women’s Center, “The Homeless People Project” UNC, Chapel Hill NC, 2002

Durham County Library, “Through Our Eyes, A Community Explores Homelessness”        

Durham NC, 2001

Gallery 110 North, “The Homeless People Project” Plymouth WI, 1999

Carolina Friends School, “The Homeless People Project” Durham NC, 1997

Louisburg College, “The Homeless People Project” Louisburg NC,1996

Durham Art Guild Gallery, “Edie Cohn-Retrospective” Durham NC, 1996

Community Shelter for H.O.P.E., “The Homeless People Project” Durham NC, 1992-current

Carolina Union Galleries, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC, 1985

The ArtsCenter, “Strength of Character” Carrboro NC, 1985

Durham Art Guild Gallery, “Hidden Corners: Portraits in Charcoal” Durham NC, 1983

SOHO20 Gallery, a NYC feminist women’s art cooperative, founded in1973, National Affiliate Member, 2018-Current

Center/Gallery, 1981-83, 2013-15 (Center/Gallery was a non-profit artist exhibition space, funded by NC Arts council, NEA, and special art projects serving women artists and the NC Community between 1977-84. Following 1984 Center/ Gallery has continued to promote and sponsor art exhibits and public art projects that support feminism/womanism/humanism. Center/Gallery is included in the Feminist Art Spaces Archives at Rutgers University)

Portrait Society of America, 2010-13

Durham Art Guild, 2010-current

 

GRANTS      

North Carolina Humanities Council, 2001

Durham Arts Council Season Grant, 1996

Durham Arts Council Mini Grant, 1993

 

Durham County Library, Community Conversations (panels),“Homeless People Tell Their Stories”; “A Community Explores Homelessness”; and “An Artist Shares the Stories of Homeless People”, Fall 2001

The Center for Documentary Studies-Connect Project, TROSA (drug rehab center),       “Portraiture” (drawing/writing—adults), Durham NC, 1997-2000

Gallery 110 North, “Portraiture Workshop” (drawing—adults), Plymouth WI, June 1999

Carolina Friends School, “Portraiture” (drawing—high school), Artist-in-Residency    Program, Durham NC, 1997

Documentary Studies Brown Bag Lunch, “Through my Eyes, an artist explores the homeless in her community” (lecture), Duke University, Durham NC, 1997

Carolina Friends School, “Nursing Home Portrait/Oral History Project” (middle &             high school), Artist-in-Residency Program, Durham NC, Spring 1997

In the early 90s I went to the Community Shelter for H.O.P.E. in downtown Durham in order to draw and interview homeless residents. I did that every Thursday for 3 years. I would pay each individual $5 for posing and another $5 for allowing me to interview them. I also gave them an 11 x 17” print of their finished portrait—protected in plastic; to survive shelter life. I also received a few small grants from the Durham Arts Council to help offset the cost of framing a traveling exhibit. Also during that time I had numerous solo shows in the area and gave talks at local universities, colleges and schools about the project.

 In 2001 I got a major grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council to find the people I had drawn 10 years earlier. I did not find many, but four people were willing to be re-interviewed and re-drawn--all of them were no longer homeless. During this time I had scholars working with me from UNC’s Oral History Department and from the Duke Center for Documentary Studies. Through an exhibit at the Durham County Library and 3 community forums, we brought the topic of homelessness to the front burner in Durham.   

http://www.nchumanities.org/publications/crossroads/xrd0302.pdf  (March 2002)

http://www.zhibit.org/ediecohn/homeless-project/no-call-for-pity

THE DURHAM FOOD CO-OP MURAL (now called The Cookery)

15 x 21’ outdoor mural--1104½ W. Chapel Hill Street, Durham NC, 1993

 In the early 1990s the Durham Food Co-op moved into the economically struggling West End Neighborhood. I volunteered to paint a mural that would reflect the co-op’s mission: to build bonds of solidarity across racial and class boundaries while providing quality food for their members and the surrounding community. The mural was of a farmers market, populated by a diverse group of people—all working together, On the day of the mural dedication speakers from the community spoke eloquently of the building‘s history in the Civil Rights days and its importance to the community. And, although the Durham Food Co-op has now shut its doors, the mural continues to be a source of pride for the entire West End neighborhood.

 

In 1983 I brought my drawing supplies to the hospital as I anticipated the birth of my daughter Rachel. I ended up with an emergency C-section, but my determination to draw her did not diminish, and even though I would fall asleep as I ate my lunch, I managed to draw her on her second day of life. The response of the staff, nurses, and doctors to the charcoal portrait was overwhelmingly positive; so I thought to myself, "Hey, perhaps some day I can earn money as an artist with a baby portrait service at Durham Regional Hospital."  Four years later I approached the hospital and became a "concessionaire" for them. Starting in 1988, on two days a week I went into the hospital and sketched babies, and after twelve years I had drawn over 3,200 portraits! In fact, I still do them on occasion for mothers who have new babies and want a picture to match their first one, or who hear about me by word-of-mouth or by seeing a framed baby drawing on a friend's wall.

In the early 1980s I was the moderator for life drawing classes at the Carrboro ArtsCenter. I often invited senior citizens from the Meet Your Neighbor Club, which shared the space with us at the center, to pose for the class instead of hiring traditional nude models. Over the course of 5 years I did over 80 drawings of seniors, and they were the subject of my first solo shows at the Durham Art Guild and the Carrboro ArtsCenter in the mid 1980s.

 In 2010, 25 to 30 years later, I set out to find homes for the drawings that I had kept safe in a box for all those years. With the help of friends, lots of publicity, and an exhibit at the Seymour Center (Carrboro and Chapel Hill’s current Senior Center) I was able not only to find the families of over 80% of the portraits, but also able to give to them the drawings of their loved ones right before Christmas.