WATERTOWN, MA, June 23, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Ms. Martin co-founded the Artists Collective, incorporated in 1972, in Hartford, CT where she has served in various roles including Secretary-Treasurer, Vice-President of the Board of Directors and currently as an Honorary Member. Retired from teaching, she is living and Painting at her new studio in Massachusetts.
Ionis Martin has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
An award-winning artist and educator, Ms. Martin has been making the world a more beautiful place since establishing her career paths in 1957. That is the year she graduated from Fisk University and moved to Hartford, CT to work in the YWCA and to pursue a graduate degree in Secondary Education.
In Hartford, she met and married Dr. Allyn A. Martin, a dentist and they had one son. Ms. Martin continued her studies and volunteered in the community as an arts activist. She met Jackie and Dolli McLean, Cheryl Smith and Paul Brown. This group organized and incorporated, in 1972.
She became a Docent, in the first class, starting in 1968, where she was volunteering, at the Harford, CT, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. She presented art segments in bi-weekly TV appearances for public service announcements on behalf of the Museum. Soon, Ms. Martin was serving on the Museum's Board of Trustees. She served for 18 years, rotating off of the Board in 1997. Ms. Martin also served on the Board of Incorporators of The Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. She continued to volunteer for local art museums, commissions, trusts, galleries, workshops, public and private schools and universities in the Greater Hartford area.
Her husband died in 1998. She sold her home and moved to start a new chapter in her life in Chicago in 2006.
Ms. Martin volunteered at the DuSable Museum of African American History and the South Side Community Art Center. At these institutions, she continued demonstrating her expertise in all areas of art history and education. In Chicago, she was an active member of The Art Institute, The Links, Inc., Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the Greater Chicago Fisk Alumnae Association.
Previously, she came to prominence as an art teacher at various elementary schools and high schools, including Bloomfield High School, Weaver High School and other schools in Hartford and Bloomfield, CT. Other noteworthy roles held in Ms. Martin's career include Lecturer and Adjunct Professor in the Art Department at Central Connecticut State University. In recognition of her professional excellence, she was the recipient of a Secondary Art Teacher of the Year award from the Connecticut Art Education Association, as well as a "Through Young Black Eyes" grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. She received a Summer Art Fellowship to Skidmore College for high school art teachers. In addition, Ms. Martin was honored as a DuBois Institute Fellow at Harvard University and she was selected for Who's Who in the World, and Who's Who of American Women.
At seventeen, her parents sent her to college in Nashville, where her two older sisters had graduated. She continued to invest in education for her professional advancement. After earning her Bachelor's Degree from Fisk University in 1957 she went on to earn a Master's Degree in Education in 1968 from the University of Hartford and a Master's Degree in Fine Arts in 1987 from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. All degrees were earned while she was teaching. She was granted a sabbatical in 1981-82, supported by the Bloomfield Schools Board of Education.
As a professional educator, Ms. Martin believes art is taught best through the disciplines of "Art History, Art Production, Aesthetics and Art Criticism". These Disciplines are the focus of the Curriculum Sampler, for which she was a contributing writer, along with other educators, art critics and museum staffers. (Discipline Based Art Education: A Curriculum Sampler, published by The J. Paul Getty Trust's Center for Education in the Arts, Los Angeles, CA, 1991, ISBN 0-89236-171-9).
Currently, she is writing and painting in Watertown, MA where she lives near her son and his family. As she looks to the future she is excited by the opening of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington, DC, where she is a Charter Member. By moving back to New England, she is near and affiliating with Boston's National Center for African-American Art.
About Marquis Who's Who :
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America , Marquis Who's Who has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America , Who's Who in the World , Who's Who in American Law , Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare , Who's Who in Science and Engineering , and Who's Who in Asia . Marquis publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
# # #