The Ellen Frank Illumination Arts Foundation Hosts Three-Day Celebration at Ashawagh Hall

Ellen Frank, Enumeration of Wonders, mixed media, gold leaf on canvas, 104 x 69 inches. Courtesy of the Estate of Ellen Frank.

The Ellen Frank Illumination Arts Foundation (EFIAF) proudly announces a three-day celebration at Ashawagh Hall to honor the remarkable legacy of artist, writer and poet Ellen Frank.

Centered on an exhibition of paintings and works on paper dating from the 1980s through early 2018, the event will commence with an opening reception on Friday, April 12th, at 5:00 pm, followed by a presentation of the Cities of Peace Kosovo Project on Saturday, April 13, at 2:00 pm. Speakers include: Christina Strassfield, Lee Skolnick, Luma Krasniqi and Luiza Thaqi (from Kosovo via video). On April 14 at 11:00 am will be a Reading of the Poetry of Ellen Frank by family and friends, including Maria Pessino, Gabriele Raacke, Teri Kennedy, Bill Chaleff, and Elena Prohaska. The exhibition will be on view Friday to Sunday, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.

An artist, scholar, and writer, Ellen Frank (1946-2021) was recognized with numerous awards in painting, book design, and scholarship including a Fulbright Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, Ford Foundation Fellowship, Pollock Krasner Award in Painting, New York State Council on the Arts, and a New York Foundation for the Arts grant. In 2018, she was named Fulbright Specialist in Peacebuilding and Reconciliation, U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and World Learning, and received an Award for Excellence for Cities of Peace from KFOR / NATO.

Dr. Frank studied art history and connoisseurship at Yale University, the Courtauld and Warburg Institutes in London, and held an interdisciplinary doctorate in English Literature and the Visual Arts from Stanford University. In 2015, she received an Honorary Doctorate for Cities of Peace from the Russian Armenian (Slavonic) University.

As Assistant Professor of English Literature at UC Berkeley she co-designed and created the first interdisciplinary major

“Literature and the Visual Arts.” Her first book, Literary Architecture: Essays Toward a Tradition (University of California Press), was awarded the New York Institute for Graphic Arts 50 Best Books; Ronce & Coffin Club Design Award; and “Best Book in 50 Years” by University of California Press.