BettyAnn Mocek is a well-known artist, arts advocate and educator in her native Chicago. She was a recipient of the Carthage College Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award. She was also awarded the Chicago Artists’ Coalition’s Service to the Visual Arts Award in recognition of her many years of advocacy on behalf of Chicago artists and for her role in spearheading and directing for its first five years the Chicago Art Open, the nation’s largest exhibition of Chicago artists (over 300) under one roof. She also received the Chicago Society of Artists' Woman of the Year Award from the oldest continuously existing arts organization in the country, in honor of her significant service to the visual arts community.
Educator
Professor Mocek is a tenured Professor of Art at Concordia University Chicago, having been on the faculty since 2002. She is also the Gallery Director of Concordia’s Ferguson Art Gallery. For more information on the visual arts scene at the Gallery, call 708-209-3013 or click here.
She also taught for many years from her own studio and at many schools, including at the City of Chicago's own Gallery 37 After School Program in printmaking, at the Evanston (Illinois) Art Center, and at Paper Press Studios. She taught at the College of Saint Teresa in Winona, Minnesota and at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, and was the director of the Chicago Center for the Print Art Gallery. She received the terminal degree of Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she was also voted Most Outstanding Teaching Assistant.
Artist
BettyAnn Mocek creates prints, drawings and mixed-media works of art. She holds the terminal degree of Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking and a minor in Art History from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Her mentors have included Professors Malcolm Myers and Karl Bethke, both at the University of Minnesota, and Professor Gerald Kruse, at Carthage College, each of whose work is in the direct lineage of America’s father of modern fine art printmaking, Mauricio Lasansky. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree, cum Laude and Honors in Art, from Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin. While there, she also completed a second major in Religion and was awarded the Leadership Award for being the most outstanding leader of the graduating class.
Exhibition Highlights
“Observations, A Solo Exhibition Inspired by a Sabbatical in New York City,” Concordia University Chicago, “Diaspora,” Ten Women/Fifteen Years, Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, Women’s Caucus for Art National Exhibition, New Century Gallery, Chelsea, New York, NY, “Santitos (Patron Saints)” and “Day of the Dead Print Portfolio Project Traveling Show,” curated by Arceo Press, Chicago, “Collaborative Vision: The Poetic Dialogue Project,” in which 31 national and international artists were paired with 31 poets to create new collaborative works for a national traveling show, two commissioned sculptural works for “Suite Home Chicago,” an outdoor exhibition of painted fiberglass ‘street furniture’ throughout downtown Chicago that was developed by Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs Public Art Program; Sears Tower/TrizecHahn Properties and the Fairmont Hotel each sponsored and purchased Mocek’s artwork suites. Her work "Zinc Dance in Brooklyn" was honored as Best of Show at the distinguished Silvermine Guild National Print Biennial in Connecticut.
Mocek's work has also been shown at: the Alexandria (Louisiana) Museum of Art; the San Diego Institute of Art; California State University; and in Washington, D.C. in conjunction with the National Museum of Women in Art.
Her works are in numerous public and private collections, including: The Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing (Peking), China; Sears Tower Sky Deck, Chicago; Fairmont Hotel, Chicago; Chicago United, Inc.; Northwestern National Life Insurance, Minneapolis; Oakton Community College, Des Plaines, Illinois; and the University of Minnesota Art Museum. Several of BettyAnn’s works are displayed in The Chicago Art Scene, a book by Ivy Sundell that highlights selected Chicago-based visual artists.
Mocek also juries various fine art exhibitions, including the Old Town, Wells Street and 57th Street Art Fairs in Chicago, Art in the Park, Oak Park, IL, West Suburban Artists’ Guild and Oak Park Art Leagues’ Shows, Riverfront Arts in Naperville, IL, as well as the Chicago Public Schools All City High School Art Contest/Show, to name a few.
Arts Advocacy
Mocek is a member of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Society of Artists since 2005 and is a member of the Women’s Caucus for Art and Ten Chicago Women Artists’ Critique and Exhibition Group.
From 1998-2005, Mocek was the President of Skyline Art Studios, Inc., a company that leased out and managed 14 fine art studios just west of downtown, providing workspace for over 45 Chicago artists.
BettyAnn has served the Chicago Artist’s Coalition (CAC), a not-for-profit artist’s organization of over 2,400 members, as a staff employee, board member or volunteer for over twenty years. In 1998 Mocek spearheaded the development of the Chicago Art Open for the CAC. She also served as one of the directors of this show for its first five years.