Brenda Schertz

Brenda Schertz was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1963, and educated in both public and deaf schools. She attended the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Boston. It was at the Art Institute that an independent-study project in art history led her to explore "Deaf Art," which then led to an examination of Deaf View/Image Art (De'VIA). The project culminated in a slide presentation of artworks that met the criteria for De'VIA as set forth in the the manifesto.

Information gathered in that independent study project grew into the exhibition called A Perspective of Deaf Culture through Art held at Northern Essex Community College in September 1993. This is believed to have been the first exhibition devoted to works that met the De'VIA criteria. Interest generated by this exhibition let to a second exhibition at the Deaf Studies IV Conference in the spring of 1995. Schertz also curated the Deaf Artists Exhibit at the Deaf Studies VI Conference held in Oakland, California in April 1999.

Schertz, working with Dr. Harlan Lane under the sponsorship of Northeastern University, received funding for a year-long, seven-city touring Deaf Artists' Exhibit now touring the country. For more information, see http://www.deafarts.org/.

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