Lisa Bulawsky, associate professor of printmaking and drawing in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, has been honored with an Excellence in Teaching Award from Emerson Electric Co.
She was presented the award in a Nov. 20 ceremony at The Ritz-Carlton in Clayton.
Bulawsky, who came to the University in 1996, teaches undergraduate and graduate printmaking and drawing majors, as well as general elective printmaking. In addition, she has taught a series of special topics in printmaking, including “Contemporary Processes,” “Guerilla Printmaking” and “From Propaganda to Decoration.”
In 2003, Bulawsky worked with students to create “Operation Pandemic Joy” — a “multimedia propaganda campaign” promoting joy through SMART (Social Message Art) bombs, leaflets and printed magnets — as part of WUSTL’s Sesquicentennial celebration.
Other special projects include Making Connections, an oversized woodcut printed by a city bus, and Target Feedback, a collaborative exhibition focusing on social self-portraiture.
Bulawsky’s own works on paper have been exhibited nationally, most recently in the solo show Merry Folly (all fall down) at the Philip Slein Gallery, 1319 Washington Ave., and in the group exhibition Outlaw Printmakers, which traveled to New York, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Mo., and Austin, Texas.
Her works are included in numerous public and private collections, including those of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City; the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Antwerp, Belgium; and the Frans Masereel Graphik Centrum in Kasterlee, Belgium. Other honors include a National Endowment for the Arts/Mid-America Arts Alliance Regional Grant.
In 2001, she was named the School of Art’s Professor of the Year by Student Union.
In addition, Bulawsky is the founder of Vertigo Press, an umbrella organization for carrying out a variety of public art projects and interventions, and Blindspot Galleries, an alternative exhibition space — Bulawsky’s white Ford minivan — which displays artworks printed on thin strips of magnetic-backed vinyl.
The Excellence in Teaching program, sponsored by Emerson Electric Co., annually recognizes over 100 teachers from pre-school through higher education. The program began in 1989 as part of St. Louis’ VP Fair, but in 1991 it was adapted to coincide with the beginning of National Education Week in the fall.
Honorees are selected by their school districts or institutions for exceptional efforts in the education field.