Jo Hanson's Biography:

A resident of California since 1955, Jo Hanson holds an MA in Education from the University of Illinois and another in Art from San Francisco State University, reflecting a mid-life career change. Her work became known in the mid-1970s for the environmental installation of "Crab Orchard Cemetery," which employed unusual techniques including a 12-foot high photo enlargement on transparency to create a scenic surround around the gallery walls. Since 1980 her public work has derived from the experiences and issues of her sweeping up the trash on her windy block of San Francisco.

Hason has exhibited widely and has done occasional teaching at UC Berkeley, UC Extension Center in San Francisco, California College of Arts and Crafts, and Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. She is an active lecturer and panelist whose subject of choice is art and the environment. She writes articles and essays for publication, and in 1987 published a tax book for artists. Her curatorial work includes the recent exhibition, "Living in Balance," at the San Francisco International Airport, prepared in collaboration with two colleagues and focused on art work that illustrates and advocates the ecological 3-Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. "Living in Balance" was exhibited in an enlarged form at the Richmond Art Center in California, 1994.

Hanson's experiences with City streetcleaning and recycling agencies, and her 6 years service as an arts commissioner, set up associations which led to her proposing and advising an artist in residence program for San Francisco's disposal company. The company's pioneering program models the use of art and artists as effective instruments for getting public cooperation in waste reduction.

Recipient of an artist's fellowship (1977) and a visual arts project grant (1979) from the National Endowment for the Arts, and several civic citations for her work, Hanson received the 1992 Lifetime Achievement Awary from the Northern California Regional Women's Caucus for Art. Her work is in many public and private collections.