Marilyn Banner
Marilyn Banner is an artist and arts educator with more than 25 years experience in each discipline. Her educational background includes a BFA in painting from Washington University in St. Louis, graduate work at Queens College, State College at Buffalo, and University of Maryland, and an MSEd from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. She has taught art in the Washington DC area at Maret School, Green Acres School, Maryland College of Art and Design, and in Montgomery County Alternative Programs, as well as privately.

Ms. Banner's exhibition record includes local, national, and international shows. Her most recent one-person shows were at Ceres Gallery, NYC, Shepherd College, Shepherdstown, WV, and Artspace in Richmond, VA. She is a seven-time recipient of fellowship residencies at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and was included in Who's Who in American Women in 1999. She has lectured on her work at numerous institutions including Maryland Institute College of Art, Maryland College of Art and Design, National Institutes of Health, Shepherd College, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Her work is in several public and over 100 private collections.

In addition to teaching and exhibiting art, Ms. Banner has been active as an arts activist and organizer. She is co-founder and co-director of Washington Musica Viva, a popular new music, poetry, and visual arts performance series which began in her Kensington, MD studio and is now city-wide. Since 1987 she has led support/ empowerment groups for women in the arts in the DC area, and was regional coordinator of No Limits for Women in the Arts, a national organization, for five years. She has served on the DC board of the Women's Caucus for Art, and co-organized the national WCA Conference in 1991. She has curated WCA shows and led a panel at the WCA national conference in Seattle in 1993. The DC Area Women's Caucus chapter recently honored Ms. Banner with presentation of the Corinne Mitchell Award for service to women in the arts in the Washington DC metropolitan area.