Beth Krensky

Beth Krensky is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Utah. She received her formal art training from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies, holds an M.Ed. from Harvard Graduate School of Education, and earned her Ph.D. in Educational Foundations from the University of Colorado at Boulder. As one of the five founding members of the international artist collective, the Artnauts, she has participated in 226 exhibitions across 19 countries, using art as a tool for addressing global issues while connecting with artists worldwide.

Her academic achievements include being named the Utah Higher Education Art Educator of the Year in 2022 and selected as one of Utah's 15 Most Influential Artists in 2019. Among her institutional honors from the University of Utah are the Presidential Scholar, Public Service Professor, and Distinguished Teaching awards. In 2023, she was selected as one of five performance art finalists for the 16th Arte Laguna Prize and her work "Float Away" won the Alfred Lambourne Prize for Movement.

Krensky describes herself as "a gatherer of things—objects, words, spirit—and a connector of fragments, to make us whole." Her artistic practice traverses the borderlands between spirit and matter, creating objects and performative gestures as contemplative acts. Much of her work, cobbled together from the detritus of life, is intended to be portable and able to metaphorically cross layers of shared and contested existence. Her work addresses pressing social issues while providing refuge—a free space that allows participants to name themselves, envision different realities, and engage in the re-making of their world.

As a scholar, Krensky focuses on community-based art education, youth activist art, and art for social change. Her co-authored book with Seana Lowe Steffen, Engaging Classrooms and Communities through Art, is widely used in the community-based art education field. She is also a Fellow with the Jewish Art Salon since 2014 and a scholar of youth-created art for social change.

Her recent works demonstrate a consistent exploration of memory, loss, and transformation. Through performances like "Where Lies the Border Between Us?" in the historic Jewish Ghetto of Venice and installations like the "Hollows of Emptiness" series, she creates spaces for reflection on historical trauma, particularly related to the Holocaust. Her work often incorporates found objects and historical artifacts, transforming them into vessels for personal and collective memory.

• Utah Higher Education Art Educator of the Year (2022)
• Utah's 15 Most Influential Artists (2019)
• Presidential Scholar award (University of Utah)
• Public Service Professor award (University of Utah)
• Distinguished Teaching award (University of Utah)
• Alfred Lambourne Prize for Movement (2023)
• Alfred Lambourne Prize for Movement (2018)
• Performance art finalist for the 16th Arte Laguna Prize (2023)

Krensky's academic work extends beyond her artistic practice to include significant contributions to art education theory and practice. Her research on youth-created art for social change has influenced community-based art education approaches nationwide. She has served as a mentor to numerous students and emerging artists, though specific advisees are not mentioned in the provided text. Her work with the Artnauts collective has created international connections and collaborations that extend her impact beyond the classroom.

Her current projects continue to explore the intersection of personal and collective memory, particularly through works addressing the Holocaust and historical trauma. The "Hollows of Emptiness" series, created in collaboration with artist Zev Gorfinkle, uses pre-World War II model trains to create contemplative spaces honoring the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust. Her performance work often takes place in historically significant locations, creating dialogues between past and present through ritualistic gestures and symbolic objects.