Ann Forbush is a Boston based artist/educator who has served on the MCA and, previously, Watertown Children’s Theatre boards for more than a decade. She holds a BFA in photography from UArts in Philadelphia and an MFA from MassART in Boston.
Ann’s professional experience includes designing textiles for Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, teaching at the deCordova Museum School, and coordinating three international art exchanges with the Boston/Strasbourg Sister City Association. Her artwork is in the collections of the Boston Athenaeum, Children’s Hospital, the Library of Congress, and The National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Ann describes herself as a “maker.” In addition to printmaking, photography, and painting, she also makes artist’s books, quilts and assemblage sculpture. Her latest project is a cookbook, Improvisational Cooking, that features her own photography.
What’s your earliest memory of the arts?
I remember walking into my kindergarten classroom in Atlanta and seeing kids wearing their father’s buttondown shirts backwards (as smocks), painting at sunsplashed easels…it was fantastic!
Do you have a favorite memory or story about MCA?
Yes, I have many, but one of the first was listening to remarks made at the opening ceremony for the building. The speaker was Robert Pinsky, U.S. Poet Laureate, who spoke about the power contained within an arsenal and the power of art to change lives. He spoke about the value of possessing a full quiver.
How have you stayed connected to the arts these past eight months?
I have ricocheted between a variety of things: sewing face masks and quilts; answering the “Open Call” from the Getty Museum to recreate a famous work of art (I chose René Magritte’s Lovers from 1928); and, over the summer, returning to my photographic roots to make a cookbook to benefit Covid relief using foods from the local farmers market.
Who’s your favorite artist (of any form—visual arts, theater, music, dance)?
This week, I’d say YoYo Ma and Lin Manuel Miranda.
Do you have a favorite artwork?
I’ve always loved Guernica by Picasso (but fell more deeply when I saw the documentary photos revealing his process — it’s 25 feet long and he painted it in three weeks!)
Do you have a favorite quote about the arts or one you’d like to share?
Recently, I heard someone say, “The best book is the one that you write in your head while you’re standing in the produce department.” There’s a lot of truth in that idea. If an author wrote THAT book, they’d be able to put down the quill.
To learn more about Ann Forbush, visit her website. To read about and purchase Improvisational Cooking, click here.
