Stephanie Rose Bird

Stephanie Rose Bird is an artist and arts educator with a passion for the natural world and plants in particular. She worked as an Assistant Professor School of the Art Institute of Chicago, painting and drawing, 1986-2002. Bird offers workshops nationally including, at Chicago Botanic Garden and Garfield Conservatory. She taught as faculty at Illinois Institute of Art, Grace Lutheran School and Chicago Music and Performing Arts Foundation.

Bird holds a BFA cum laude, Painting and Drawing, Temple University, Tyler School of Art; MFA, Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego. She has won numerous awards including a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, Australia, anthropology and art, studying Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander art. She has also won several juror’s awards for Best of Show and Technical Achievement. She received funding from the John A. Kitteredge Foundation, Ford Foundation for Faculty Enrichment, CIES and Australian-American Education Foundation, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Illinois Arts Council, Pollock-Krasner Foundation and others.

Her art was auctioned through Sotheby’s Chicago and Tel Aviv, International Young Art exhibition. She has exhibited widely including: University of Illinois, Chicago; African American Cultural Center; ARC; Artemesia Gallery; Betty Rymer Gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Satori Fine Art; Chicago State College; Prairie State College; Northern Illinois University; Sioux City Art Center; Rahr-West Museum, ‘Art from Detritus’, John Jay College of Justice, New York.
Bird was commissioned by Cialis Western Open (PGA Tour) where she was artist-in-residence. Her work was featured in the collection of Art-in-the-Embassies program, US Department of State, Cotonou, Africa. Her works are in the corporate collection of BMO Harris Bank and McCormick Place South’s Illinois Artists Gallery.

She is the author of 7 published nonfiction books centered on herbalism and culture, two of which she illustrated. Her books include: “The Big Book of Soul,” “A Healing Grove: African Tree Medicines and Rituals.” She has been interviewed about her art and writing on WNPR, WBEZ, ABC Channel 7 News, NBC Channel 5 News, the BBC, PBS and other media outlets.

© Stephanie Rose Bird