Sharif Bey is a dual assistant professor in art education and teaching and leadership at Syracuse University. Dr. Bey earned his PhD in Art Education from the Pennsylvania State University. He holds an M.F.A in Studio Art from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a B.F.A, in ceramics, from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.
As a teenager Bey received a thorough introduction to community-based arts programming through an Apprenticeship Program at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild’s (MCG) in Pittsburgh. After receiving his M.F.A, Dr. Bey was employed as a studio coordinator in MCG’s Youth Development Program where he supervised a staff of art teachers, offered curricular and technical support to Pittsburgh Public School teachers, conducted teacher training workshops and ran an after school visual arts program in ceramics. As a doctoral student in 2003 Dr. Bey was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship where he conducted research on post socialist art education reforms, as a scholar and artist in residence, at The Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia. In 2007 Dr. Bey received The Harlan E. and Suzanne D. Hoffa Dissertation Award from Penn State University for his research “Aaron Douglas and Hale Woodruff: The Social Responsibility and Expanded Pedagogy of the Black Artist”. Dr. Bey has published articles in the Journal of Curriculum & Pedagogy, the Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education and the Journal of the National Council for Education of Ceramic Art. From fall 2005 to spring of 2009 Bey served as an Assistant Professor of Art Education and the Art Education Program Coordinator at Winston Salem State University in North Carolina.
Dr. Bey is additionally a studio artist who maintains an active exhibition record. In recent years Bey has been an artist in residence at the McColl Center for Visual Art in Charlotte, Hunter College in New York City, and the Vermont Studio Center. Dr. Bey is the 2008 recipient of the Regional Artists Grant from the Winston Salem Arts Council for his studio-based research on ancient Egyptian adornment and material culture in Cairo.
Bey has a particular interests and scholarship in African-American art history, art education of former communist Europe and contemporary crafts. He has conducted numerous lectures, workshops, and presentations and exhibits widely in the United States and internationally. His studio work ranges from decorative/ functional pottery to conceptual ceramic works, which are influenced by ritual and African-American identity.
www.vpa.syr.edu/directory/sharif-bey
