About
Through research, production, and programming, Ginger Press honors artists/activists who open us to the art of daily life and to the artist within each of us. They spur us to challenge ourselves, to question our lives, and to think freely. Bringing their stories to light helps to build connections and enliven our communities. We deeply appreciate any donation toward this important work. We accept donations via PayPal. Thank you.
Jan Rindfleisch (author) has focused on community building as an artist, educator, curator and author. From 1978 to 1985, she taught art and art history at De Anza College, and in 1979 began a 32-year journey as executive director/curator of Euphrat Museum of Art. Together with Euphrat board members and college and community activists, Rindfleisch created an interdisciplinary forum for exploring cultural issues, fostering civic engagement, and expanding opportunity and visibility for artists working outside the mainstream. Questioning assumptions and working in supportive collaboration with people of all ages and backgrounds, she developed thought-provoking exhibitions and innovative programs, including arts education programs for at-risk youth.
In addition to actively supporting small arts organizations and the emerging arts community, Rindfleisch helped found the Cupertino Arts Commission, participated in the Getty Museum Management Institute, and served on the Santa Clara County Arts Council, the California Arts Council Visual Arts Panel, the Arts Council Silicon Valley Local Arts Grants Review Panel, and San José City Hall Exhibits Committee. Rindfleisch has been recognized as a Silicon Valley Business Journal Woman of Influence and a Santa Clara County Woman of Achievement. She has also received the Arts Council Silicon Valley's Arts & Business (ABBY) Arts Leadership Award; Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce Leadership Vision Award in the Arts; the Civic Service Award in Cultural Arts from the City of Cupertino; and the Asian Heritage Council Arts Award. Rindfleisch has written essays and over a dozen books in conjunction with the California History Center, Euphrat Museum of Art, San José Museum of Art, Arts Council Silicon Valley, Southern Exposure (San Francisco), Bronx Museum of the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Artship Foundation (Oakland), and many other public, private, and governmental institutions. These include Coming Across: Art by Recent Immigrants; The Power of Cloth: Political Quilts 1845–1986; Content: Contemporary Issues; and Staying Visible, The Importance of Archives. Rindfleisch earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Purdue University and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from San José State University.
Nancy Hom (editor) is an artist, writer, curator and community organizer. Born in Toisan, China and raised in New York City, she has been an influential leader in the San Francisco Bay Area arts scene since 1974. Through her posters, poetry, illustrations, installations, and curatorial work, she has promoted cross-cultural understanding through community-based projects for over four decades. Since 2010, she has used the mandala format as a tool for building community, stimulating dialog, and fostering teamwork.
Besides pushing artistic boundaries, Hom has nurtured the artistic and organizational growth of over a dozen Bay Area arts organizations. In her long involvement with Kearny Street Workshop, an Asian American arts organization, she served as its executive director from 1995 to 2003. She is a Gerbode Fellow (1998) and KQED Local Hero (2003). Her awards include the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors grant (2012), the San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Award (2013), and the SF Arts Commission Individual Artists Grant (2015). Her literary work has been published in several publications, including Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America (Pantheon Books 1990), Asian Americans: The Movement and The Moment (UCLA 2001), and Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties (Verso 2016).
Ann Elliott Sherman (editor) was born and raised in Bakersfield, CA. In the mid-1980s, she hosted a weekly poetry show on KALX, studied with poet Tom Clark, and lived in a warehouse in East Oakland. After moving to the South Bay, Sherman started at Metro Newspapers as a proofreader, became copyeditor of their community newspapers, and art critic for their flagship alternative weekly, Metro. During this time, she was a member of Writing in the Margins, a women's writing group led by Margarita Luna Robles, and a founding/performing member of a multidisciplinary arts group, the Collaboratory.
Sherman has written grants, marketing materials and annual reports for many arts organizations, including San Jose's Office of Cultural Affairs, Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA), Teatro Visión de San José and San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, and provided research and project management for Silicon Valley Business Journal. The author of several limited-edition chapbooks and the guerrilla chap-pad Free—Take One, Sherman's work has been published in Blind Date, Carbuncle, Galley Sail Review, Skanky Possum, Little Elegy, Log, Shampoo, Big Bridge, Pedestal, and can we have our ball back? She published a poetry newsletter, The Monkey's Paw, founded and ran the annual Luna Park Chalk Art Festival, served on the advisory board of ARTSHIFT San Jose, and co-curated the inaugural spoken-word lounge at Anne and Mark's Art Party. Sherman was featured in the Monday Night at Moe's Books series in Berkeley and the San Jose Museum of Art's 7th Annual Poetry Invitational. She now makes her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Barbara Goldstein (contributor) is an independent consultant focusing on creative placemaking and public art planning. She directed the City of San Jose's public art program from 2004–2012 and is author of
Public Art by the Book, a primer published by Americans for the Arts and the University of Washington Press. Prior to working in San Jose, she directed public art programs in Seattle and Los Angeles. Along with Jan Rindfleisch, Goldstein coordinates the Ruth Tunstall Grant Project.
Samson Wong (webmaster, designer) is a graphic designer and software engineer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He designed and produced the Ginger Press book
Roots and Offshoots and did the layout and production for
Creative Power. He currently maintains the Ginger Press site.