Elka Kazmierczak
Elka Kazmierczak is a printmaker, book artist, designer, art educator and survivor of abuse, who emigrated from Poland in 1990. Her interest is in the role of art on the betterment of the human spirit. Her dream is to use art to empower women so that they are less vulnerable to abuse.
In 2004, Kazmierczak became the founding director of Art for Empowerment program at The Women’s Center in Carbondale, Ilinois. Motivated by that experience, she took on the role of not-for-profit art publisher with her first book, Art of Survival: Women, Healing, and the Arts (October 2006).
During her 22-year professional involvement in creative endeavors, her designs and prints have earned numerous awards. She headed the illustration program at the University at Buffalo, New York, for seven years and is currently a visiting assistant professor at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
As a researcher, Kazmierczak is interested in visual literacy and knowledge presentation. She has published her research extensively in scholarly peer-reviewed journals, including Visual Sociology Journal, Design Issues, and Journal of Semiotic Society of America. She earned an MFA in graphic design and an MA in art education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Kazmierczak is a fellow of the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art.