Erskine Sherry

Raised in Detroit, Michigan, USA, Sherry earned a Master of Fine Art in interdisciplinary lens-based media from the National University of Ireland Galway, Burren College of Art, in 2017 and both a Master of Art Education and a Bachelor of Fine Art with high honour in graphic design from Michigan State University in 1977. Her career in the arts has encompassed a wide array of interdisciplinary interests and experiences ranging from co-founder of One-Twenty in the Shade Art Gallery (Lansing, MI) and technical director for The Asia Society (New York City).

Since 1988, she has been the Vice President of Education for GOH Productions, a non-profit international arts services organization based in New York City. Sherry Erskine’s extensive thirty-five-year teaching career includes public school visual art and college level art education. In 2018, she left the faculty of College for Creative Studies (Detroit, MI) to focus on her artistic practice. Sherry Erskine’s art work in photography, video and installation recently earned awards including funding for video preservation from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts through the Bay Area Video Coalition San Francisco, California (2015-2018).

In 2019 when she did made this performance, Sherry Erskine was a Fulbright Specialist representing World Learning and the U.S. Department of State to conduct Teaching and Learning Workshops at NIAAD between July and August 2019. Working with faculty, she is investigating the theoretical foundations of teaching and learning which inform strategies for critical thinking and skill building in the curriculum. Sherry states, “In a reciprocal relationship, mentors and mentees can guide each other beyond their comfort zone and turn an area of personal weakness into a great asset. With intention and effort, we can learn so much from each other. All in all, mentors have appeared in many forms throughout my career – a friend, student, colleague, visionary or sage – each urging me further along a wonderful, winding journey in art and education.” It has been her greatest dream to continue this educational mission at Nagenda International Academy of Art and Design.