Jen Banta
Jennifer Banta, a cultural worker, curator and writer, graduated with a B.A. in Art History from Mills College, Oakland, CA and an M.A. in Visual and Critical Studies from the California College of Arts, San Francisco. Her essay, “The Painting in the Rafters: Refiguring Abstract Expressionist Bernice Bing,” is published in the CCA journal, Sightlines, (1999). She is the editor of Cultural Confluences: The Art of Lenore Chinn, (2011). In February 2012, she presented her paper, Cultural Activism: How to Reclaim Asian American Art History at the College Art Association Conference in L.A. She is currently providing programmatic direction for her sixth annual multi-disciplinary United States of Asian America Festival with the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center. She is the curator of the forthcoming exhibit, The Future is Now: Asian America on Its own Terms, with an acclaimed group of artists, which will be at the SOMArts Main Gallery during the month of May. She is a 2012 recipient of a Cal Humanities Grant for her next project, “The Worlds of Bernice Bing,” a documentary film in collaboration with award-winning filmmaker Madeline Lim. Her writings have appeared on www.stretcher.org.
