BIO

Barbara Mueller

Barbara Mueller, born in Summit, New Jersey, is a Professor Emerita of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Mueller completed her Bachelor of Art degree in Art at Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee then her Master of Art degree in Painting at the University of Iowa, Iowa City.

Upon her graduation from Maryville College, she began her teaching career there in 1961. In 1966, she’d secured an instructor position at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where she would complete her teaching career in 1999.

As a teacher, Mueller understood the importance of directing her own education, where she sought other opportunities to improve her understanding of art. In 1971 she won a Fulbright Faculty grant to study in India for two months. Other opportunities included a nine-month visiting scholar position at the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle in 1972-1973; a month-long residency at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1975; and study at Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf, West Germany in 1981 and 1983.

Bucking the stereotype of artist-as-loner, Mueller was a founding member of the Kansas City Artist Coalition in 1976. The Coalition was and remains an artist-centered, artist-run alternative space that features the work of local artists.

Other professional affiliations included board positions with the Mid America College Art Association (1975-1976), Women’s Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (1992-1998), and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Print Society (2002-2003).

Mueller’s work graced many national and international juried and invitational exhibitions, notably, Cimarron National, Works on Paper at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater; 20th Dulin National Works on Paper, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee; Mid-America Biennial, Owensboro Museum of Fine Arts, Owensboro, Kentucky; Greater Midwest/International, West Surrey College of Art and Design, West Surrey, England; Ein Fruhsommermorgen, Schloss Garath, near Dusseldorf, West Germany; and solo and group shows with Ward-Nasse Gallery in New York City (1978, 1983, 1984-1985).

Mueller’s work frequently earned honors such as a purchase award for her work in the Cimarron National Works on Paper in 1987 and a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in 1994. Other honors included a purchase award for her work in William Woods College’s Watercolor: Missouri exhibition and Fine Arts Award granted from New Letters Magazine.

Mueller’s work can be found in the collections of the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Manhattan, Kansas; Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence; Oklahoma State University in Stillwater; and William Woods College, Fulton, Missouri.