Jackie Brookner, 69

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Jackie Brookner, a pioneering ecological artist and educator, died on May 15. Born in Providence, she was the daughter of Sidney and Isabelle Weinstein. She received a B.A. in art history from Wellesley College in l967 and completed all work for a Ph.D. in art history at Harvard except for a dissertation, before shifting her focus to sculpture in l971.

Her early career as an artist working in cast bronze was  formed in part, by the welded abstract sculpture of Isaac Witkin and by the Abstract Expressionist sensibility prevalent at The New York Studio School, where she studied with Nicholas Carrone. She had a brief stint as a co-dean there in the l970s before beginning a career at The New School’s Parsons School of Design in l980 where she taught until her death. She also taught at Harvard in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) in 2002.

She was the recipient of numerous commissions, awards, and grants, including the Nancy Gray Foundation for Art in the Environment and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her writings were published in The College Art Association’s Art Journal, M/E/A/N/I/N/G, WEAD Magazine and Paper Monument’s recent book “Draw It with Your Eyes Closed: The Art of the Art Assignment.” “Urban Rain: Stormwater as Resource,” was published in 2009. Art and Ecology, her 1992 guest-edited issue of Art Journal is considered a milestone in ecological thinking.

She was an inspiring teacher and administrator. At Parsons, she had taught in the Fine Arts MFA program since its inception and served as the interdepartmental program coordinator: Design for Social Change in 2000-2001. She was the recipient of The New School University, Pedagogical Innovation Grant in 2011.

In a statement about her practice, she wrote: “Hidden in the roots of our words we find what we seem to want to forget – that we are literally the same stuff as earth. My work explores this identity while undermining the assumptions and values that keep us from acknowledging it.”

She is survived by her wife Terry Iacuzzo, her brother Philip Weinstein and nephews Noah and Benjamin.

Her last site-specific installation was her own body – wrapped in a shroud, placed on a rustic plank of wood and lowered directly into the earth that she loved so much.

She worked on many meaningful projects throughout her life, most recently the Fargo Project. For information and to make a donation to the Fargo Project, please contact Colleen McDonald-Morken at C.McDonaldMorken@NDSU.edu.