Art and Design

Literature

Kelly H. L'Ecuyer, Jewelry by Artists: In the Studio, 1940-2000, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, 2010, pp. 109, 112, 221-222 (for a discussion and works by the artist)
Marbeth Schon, Form & Function: American Modernist Jewelry, 1940-1970, Schiffer, Atglen, Pennsylvania, 2008, p. 210 (for a discussion and work by the artist)

Artist Biography

Helen Shirk was born in 1942. She received her B.S. from Skidmore College in 1963, having studied there with Earl Pardon. She received her M.F.A. from the Indiana University in Bloomington in 1969, having studied with Alma Eikerman. Shirk taught at Indiana University from 1971-1973 and the Des Moines Art Center from 1973-1975. She is Professor of Art (Emerita) and Head of the Jewelry/Metals program at San Diego State University where she has taught since 1975. She received a Fulbright grant in 1963 and in 1978 and 1988 received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Works by Shirk have been widely exhibited. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Mint Museum of Craft and Design, the Museum of Art and Design, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Carnegie Museum, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and others.