Michael Faris
Dr. Michael Faris is an artist and art instructor. He is a former Assistant Professor of Art Education at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. He has also taught at Shawnee Community College (SCC) in Ullin, Illinois; Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville (SIUE); and Centralia High School (CHS) in Centralia, Illinois. He has also taught at various community art centers, including the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, Center of Creative Arts St. Louis, Stone Soup Gallery, the Centralia Cultural Society, the Little Egypt Art Association, the Hartley Art Gallery and Event Center, and Carbondale Community Arts.
Faris has exhibited his paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures at the Kranzberg Art Center of St. Louis, the University of Nebraska Omaha, the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Columbia College, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, The Indianapolis Art Center, The Springfield Art Association, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Swope Art Museum, Carbondale Community Arts, the Centralia Cultural Society, South Suburban College, the Hise Museum of Regional Art, Southeastern Illinois College, and other locations.
Faris earned his PhD in art education at Indiana University, Bloomington (IUB). He earned his MS and BS in art education at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville (SIUE). He was named SIUE art education student of the year in 1996, and was inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society the same year. He was awarded the Della Fricke Art Education Scholarship at IUB. His dissertation explores racial inequity in community arts centers in the United States, with part of the study involving a specific arts center in the Midwest.
Faris has given several professional presentations involving art with a social agenda, racial and civil rights issues in the arts and art education, multicultural art education, curriculum development, and historical issues in art. These presentations were for various organizations in Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois.
Faris lives in Belleville, Illinois, with his wife Debra.