Hello. My name is Jennifer Ruth Hoyden and I am an educator, artist, gallery coordinator, and doctoral candidate in Art and Art Education. I have an M.A. in Cognitive Science in Education with a concentration in creativity, and I enjoy discussing, presenting, and publishing research that expands our understanding of imaginative thinking and experiences.

As an educator, I enjoy supporting students through meaningful explorations. I have designed and taught a graduate level research seminar series that builds research literacy around the compelling academic scholarship in and related to the field of Art Education. I have also led art workshops in both the U.S. and abroad for multidisciplinary audiences.

As a program fellow, I serve as a gallery coordinator in the Macy Art Gallery at Teachers College, Columbia University, where I collaborate with faculty, students, and staff to produce exhibitions featuring student and faculty work, along with special exhibitions for guest artists.

As a doctoral candidate in the Art and Art Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, I am investigating the relationship fiber artists have with the materials they work with in their artistic practice, and their earliest histories and experience of textiles, to build an understanding of materials as conduits for artistic thinking.

A self-taught fiber artist, my current practice is rug-hooking in the folk-art manner established in the 19th century – an expressive, experimental, functional visual art form. I value the patient nature of the materials which can be interrupted, taken back up, put down, and returned to.