Biography

 Fessler’s audio and video installations, artists’ books, photographs and short films have been shown in galleries, museums and film festivals internationally. In 2003 she was awarded a Radcliffe Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University to research and conduct interviews with women who surrendered children for adoption. The resulting book,THE GIRLS WHO WENT AWAY (The Penguin Press), was chosen as one of the top 5 nonfiction books of 2006 by the National Book Critics Circle. Fessler is the recipient of visual art and film grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the LEF Foundation, the Rhode Island Foundation, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, Art Matters, NY; and the Maryland and Rhode Island State Arts Councils. Fessler’s work is in the collection of the Whitney Museum, NY; Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.  

Ann Fessler

Professor
afessler@risd.edu
401-454-6128

• MFA, University of Arizona
• MA, Webster University
• BA, Ohio State University, Columbus

Courses