Illustrator and author Whitney Sherman is the founding Director of the MFA in Illustration Practice program, and co-founder of the MA in Illustration at MICA. From 2000-2010, she was undergraduate Chair of Illustration at MICA where she grew the department into the largest at the College with innovative interdisciplinary courses, a concentration in book arts, and programming geared for the gaming industry. As Co-Director of Dolphin Press & Print @ MICA [2003-2020], she directed book and print projects with Henrik Drescher/Wu Wing Yee, Peter Kuper, Jon Rappleye and Michael Bartalos. In 2010, she was recognized by MICA with an Educator of the Year award. In 2020, she was awarded the Distinguished Educator in the Arts by the Society of Illustrators, NY.
Prior to her career as an award-winning illustrator, she worked in design, advertising, packaging, and public television. As an illustrator, her clients have included national magazines, design firms, national institutional organizations, and nationally-based publishers. Her commission to create the art for the US Postal Service Breast Cancer Research Stamp, the longest running postal issue in US history, has raised over $100 million in research funding.
Sherman has authored Playing with Sketches; conducted workshops in Mexico, China and the US; contributed essays to "The Education of an Illustrator", and "Educating Illustrators", both by Marshall Arisman & Steve Heller. She also served as an associate editor and co-author on the "History of Illustration" text book. Sherman appeared in a video produced by the Delaware Art Museum featuring prominent illustrators and historians responding to Museum historic holdings that depict racial stereotypes and gender roles.
Her illustration and design work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. At MICA, Sherman initiated the exhibitions Comics on the Verge, and Another Voice : Political Illustration from The Progressive, 1982-1999.
She has served as a competition juror for annuals, given notable public lectures, and served on a panel at the Library of Congress discussing the exhibition Drawn to Purpose: American Women Illustrators and Cartoonists. She also served as President of ICON5, the national illustration conference in New York.
Sherman's current work includes limited edition ceramic wares and prints, under the brand Pbody Dsign, and represents her view of the illustrator's expanding roles in art and society.
Alumni Affiliation
Photography BFA, '71
