Betty Bright

Betty Bright is an independent scholar and curator who authored the critical work, No Longer Innocent: Book Art in America 1960-1980 (Granary Books, 2005), the first history to trace the emergence of the artist’s book in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Previously, she helped start Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) in Minneapolis, a studio-based arts and educational organization that celebrates the arts of the book. She worked at MCBA for nine years as program director and curator of over 50 exhibitions, several of which toured nationally with catalogs.

Bright is the author of numerous articles, reviews and essays including publication in Counting on Chance: 25 Years of Artists’ Books by Robin Price (Wesleyan University, 2010), Harriet Bart: Abracadabra and Other Forms of Protection, (Weisman Art Museum, 2020) and the forthcoming Reclamation: Artists’ Books on the Environment (San Francisco Center for the Book, 2021).

Her scholarly interests include craft’s evolving identity, the ability of art to engage social issues, and the intersecting realms of art and the body. Bright holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Minnesota.