Karen Fitzgerald’s work has been widely exhibited in the United States. The Queens Museum of Art, Islip Art Museum, Rahr-West Museum, Madison Art Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, the University of Arizona – Tucson and the United Nations in NY have featured her work in their active exhibition schedules. A recipient of three grants from the Queens Community Arts Fund, she has also received funds from the Greenwall Foundation and the Women’s Studio Workshop. Her work is in the Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library, Brooklyn Union Gas collection, the Rienhart Collection of Germany, the Museum of New Art in Detroit and many other public and private collections. In 2005, she completed a commission for the New York City School Construction Authority. It consisted of 28 permanent panels at PS 239 in Queens. In 2004 she completed a collaborative public art exterior sculpture for the Maple Grove Cemetery. In 2003, she completed a 28’ x 56’ exterior mural for Public School 193 in Whitestone, Queens. She has also completed collaborative commissions with composers Charles Griffin and Carl MaultsBy. Currently, she is working on a new suite of gilded, round oil paintings titled, From the Core. The project is funded by USA Projects. The work will be presented in a solo exhibition, "Crossing", at the Narthex Gallery in NYC in late 2013 through February, 2014.
Fitzgerald has taught at St. John’s University, Iona College and worked as education director for the Queens Symphony Orchestra. For 12 years she has served as Artist-in-Residence at Public School 99 in central Queens. She provides direct services to students, integrating visual art content and processes into academic learning; she also provides professional development, coaching and project management to the education community at large. She has written visual art curricula for the New York Academy of Art and worked on coaching initiatives with the Center for Arts Education. She earned an MFA from Hunter College in 1985, and a M.Ed. from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1990. Karen’s work can be seen at: http://www.Fitzgeraldart.com. She lives with her husband and three sons in Woodside, New York; her studio is in Northern Long Island City.