TAWA at 45
The Exhibition
Joan B. Needham
Pod III
welded rods, modified concrete, 2005; 50″h x 25″w x 10″d
Joan B. Needham (1935-2022) exhibited locally and internationally throughout the United States, Japan, China, Spain, England, and France. She was represented by Elaine Starkman Gallery in NYC from 1982-1996. Needham was the recipient of a NJ State Council on the Arts fellowship, and her work is part of the NJ Public Arts Program. She has a lobby installation at the Richard J. Hughes Complex in Trenton, NJ. Needham earned her BFA from Moore College of Arts and Design in Philadelphia, PA, and studied abroad with Laurence Barker, a master papermaker in Barcelona, Spain. She returned to the states and introduced papermaking to central NJ in 1981. Her career as an art educator spanned more than 36 years and included Artworks, the Princeton Art Association, the Trenton After School program, and 33 years as a professor at Mercer County Community College, where she created a course in papermaking. Needham volunteered her services as a teacher in Khayalitsha, South Africa. After introducing a printmaking program in 2007-2010-2011, she taught a group of women the fundamentals of linoleum block printing. By developing their skills, the women had the opportunity to sell their prints.
Important collections in which she is represented include: the NJ State Museum, Princeton University, the Newark Library print collection, Rockefeller University (NYC), the US Embassy in Japan (Tokyo), Prudential Life Insurance (Newark, NJ), United States Trust Company (NYC), the Albright-Knox Gallery (Buffalo, NY), and Firestone Library (Princeton, NJ). In addition, A Collage Manual, Thames and Hudson, Ltd, includes Needham’s handmade paper works.