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Biography

John Foster has been a longtime collector of self-taught art and vernacular photography, as well as an artist, designer, and art curator. His collection of anonymous, found snapshots has toured the country for over five years and has been reviewed and featured in Harper’s Magazine, Newsweek Online, Phaidon, SF Gate, The Village Voice and many others. In 2005, Art & Antiques magazine named John one of the “Top 100 Collectors” in the United States. John currently serves on the Board of Trustees for SPACES, an organization dedicated to saving and preserving arts and cultural environments; and is an Advisory Board Member of the Folk Art Society of America.

John holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and a BFA from East Carolina University School of Art. For eleven years, he taught graphic design and fine arts at John Burroughs School in St. Louis; he was a member of the corporate design group at Fleishman-Hillard International Communications and later Associate Principal at Buck Consultants, a national firm focused on HR and the design of employee communications.

John was a co-founder of ENVISION Folk Art of Missouri and for 10 years edited their publication. He is also writer and has been a guest speaker at the American Folk Art Museum in NY, The Peabody-Essex Museum; and at numerous museums, art conferences and universities across the country.

John and his wife Teenuh have two grown children, Hannah and Luke.