BIO
The voice of the community is in the work, transforming people and places
Change maker, thought leader, social innovator Jay Wolf Schlossberg-Cohen, is an Open Society Institute of Baltimore Fellow and has been painting for almost 50 years, with work all over the country and many parts of the world. For the past several decades Jay has focused on community-based public art, landscapes, youth art projects, performers - dancers, actors, musicians - and sacred works. From his hometown streets of Baltimore to The White House, from elite college campuses to elementary schools in challenged communities, his world-wide art seeks to inspire, inform, engage, and give voice to the voiceless. He served for years in civic engagement management positions, in city and state governments and non-profits, fighting for social, economic, and artistic cultural change. As an artist advocate his work has raised money nationally for the Arts and community non-profit organizations.
He has been the recipient of many grants, awards and commissions, and has been involved in dozens of gallery showings across the USA.
One of his specialties is community based public art. Mr. Wolf Schlossberg-Cohen’s Rebuilding Thru Art Project (RAP) has ignited community engagement, empowerment, and action through the creation of public community-based hands-on art resulting in over 70 major art installations nationally, often focusing on challenged schools and neighborhoods, but also involved with celebratory works. He specializes in bringing divergent communities together to create public placemaking murals that depict themes identified as important by the participants while fostering a sense of belonging and investment.
Jay’s distinctive art workshop process brings together people of all ages and abilities in a collective community effort. Therefore, the processes of team building, learning, growing relationships and promoting understanding are as important as the renewing of place through art. As lead artist Mr. Wolf Schlossberg-Cohen teaches that it is not about one's ability to paint, but one's ability to think.
Jay has also worked with many Jewish organizations across the country and has twice won the prestigious JCCs of North America Biennial Zahav Award for “truly outstanding, visionary initiatives with maximum impact or potential for change” for the Grow Justice Mural and Garden, at The Peninsula JCC in Foster City, CA and the Tisha B’Av project, re-visioning the destruction of the Temples in biblical Jerusalem, Capital Camps, Waynesboro, PA.
Additional Career Achievements:
Press Contact
wolfschlossberg-cohen@comcast.net 410.218.2811
Change maker, thought leader, social innovator Jay Wolf Schlossberg-Cohen, is an Open Society Institute of Baltimore Fellow and has been painting for almost 50 years, with work all over the country and many parts of the world. For the past several decades Jay has focused on community-based public art, landscapes, youth art projects, performers - dancers, actors, musicians - and sacred works. From his hometown streets of Baltimore to The White House, from elite college campuses to elementary schools in challenged communities, his world-wide art seeks to inspire, inform, engage, and give voice to the voiceless. He served for years in civic engagement management positions, in city and state governments and non-profits, fighting for social, economic, and artistic cultural change. As an artist advocate his work has raised money nationally for the Arts and community non-profit organizations.
He has been the recipient of many grants, awards and commissions, and has been involved in dozens of gallery showings across the USA.
One of his specialties is community based public art. Mr. Wolf Schlossberg-Cohen’s Rebuilding Thru Art Project (RAP) has ignited community engagement, empowerment, and action through the creation of public community-based hands-on art resulting in over 70 major art installations nationally, often focusing on challenged schools and neighborhoods, but also involved with celebratory works. He specializes in bringing divergent communities together to create public placemaking murals that depict themes identified as important by the participants while fostering a sense of belonging and investment.
Jay’s distinctive art workshop process brings together people of all ages and abilities in a collective community effort. Therefore, the processes of team building, learning, growing relationships and promoting understanding are as important as the renewing of place through art. As lead artist Mr. Wolf Schlossberg-Cohen teaches that it is not about one's ability to paint, but one's ability to think.
Jay has also worked with many Jewish organizations across the country and has twice won the prestigious JCCs of North America Biennial Zahav Award for “truly outstanding, visionary initiatives with maximum impact or potential for change” for the Grow Justice Mural and Garden, at The Peninsula JCC in Foster City, CA and the Tisha B’Av project, re-visioning the destruction of the Temples in biblical Jerusalem, Capital Camps, Waynesboro, PA.
Additional Career Achievements:
- Over 30 solo and group shows nationally.
- Has been awarded more than 40 major grants for community based-public work.
- Mr. Wolf Schlossberg-Cohen’s portrait painting of President Clinton Playing the Saxophone was displayed in The White House for four years, was selected as the cover image for Music of the Clinton White House CD, and is now permanently installed in the Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, AK.
- For over two decades Jay has worked with Jewish organizations throughout the United States including installations at Pardes Jewish Day School, Scottsdale, AZ; Capital Camps, Waynesboro, PA; Camp Young Judea Sprout Lake, Poughkeepsie, NY; URJ Eisner Camp, Great Barrington, MA; and The TESCA/Temple Emanuel Baltimore Sukkah Project, Baltimore, MD.
- Longstanding partnerships: The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids Program; Morgan State University Visual Arts Department; 20+ years working with JCCA affiliated organizations serving in national/regional leadership capacities as an Artistic Consultant, Visual Arts Artist in Residence, Artistic Director of Arts and Culture Task Force, and one of the founders of the JCCA Maccabi Arts program.
- Artist in Residence at Everyman Theatre and Baltimore Center Stage Theatre, Baltimore, MD, both are Actors Equity companies.
- Art workshops in Baltimore and Washington, DC since 2014 for The Wire class - partnering with Dr. Toby Gordon, Academic Director, Health Care Programs of Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School.
- Served as Director of the Maryland Film Commission from 1987 to1993, and worked on more than 35 Hollywood film and TV productions, including John Water’s Hairspray and Barry Levinson’s television series Homicide.
- Producer of the original production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas at the Actors’ Studio in New York and continued with the “Tony” award winning show on Broadway. 1977-1982
- Produced and directed documentary, experimental and low budget feature films in New York City and Los Angeles from 1975 to 1987.
- Produced and designed lighting for Off-Off Broadway companies including The Actors Studio and Playrights Horizon - 1976-1978
Press Contact
wolfschlossberg-cohen@comcast.net 410.218.2811
