Biographical Information

Helen Shirk was the Head of the Jewelry/Metals program until 2010 and is now retired from teaching, having taught at SDSU since 1975. She received her BS from Skidmore College and MFA from Indiana University in Bloomington. She has been the recipient of a Fulbright Grant and two NEA Craftsmen’s Fellowships and was elected a Fellow of the American Crafts Council in 1999. She has been a frequent workshop leader and lecturer and her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. It is documented in numerous publications and included in public collections, among them the Victoria and Albert Museum, Schmuckmuseum in Pforzheim, National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Mint Museum of Craft and Design, American Craft Museum, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Oakland Museum, Mingei International Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian.