Sheila Wolper

Sheila Wolper is a mixed media artist and photgrapher based in New York City.  

As an early childhood educator, (founder and director of Beginnings Nursery School) Wolper incorporates the often-unrecognized complexities of childhood into visual narratives. 

Throughout her career as an educator, and later as the Studio Art teacher at Beginnings, Wolper began moving towards her goal of developing her own art by taking classes in photography, book arts, and mixed media at the International Center of Photography, Center for Book Arts, and Cooper Union School of Continuing Education.  She now works full time as a mixed media artist and photographer, attending workshops and classes with mixed media, collage artists Lynne Perrella, Michelle Ward, Seth Apter, and Ellen Alt.

Using photographs of her doll collection, 1950’s dollhouses, and vintage toys, she creates an alternative, dream-like world that explores the fears, fantasies, and magical thinking of young children. The juxtaposition of myriad images, through photo transfer and collage, distort facial and physical features of the people, toys, and animals that inhabit this fantasy universe. Wolper uses gesso, acrylic paint, and oil pastels to create textural backgrounds of extraordinary depth.  Her images float or are anchored within this milieu and reflect a world that delves below the surface of the accepted image of childhood.

Wolper has taught workshops at educational conferences on the use of recycled and found materials in children’s art experiences.  She also taught Art for Young Children as an adjunct professor at New York University School of Continuing Education for 15 years. Wolper co-authored Playgroups: A Complete Guide for Parents, published in 1988.

She has an AA degree in Textile Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, a BA in English Literature from Hunter College, and a MA in Early Childhood Education/ Supervision and Administration from Bank Street College.