Ginger Henry Geyer grew up in Springdale, Arkansas, where her artistic talent was nurtured by her family, community and the Ozarks scenery. She studied art under Donald Roller Wilson at the University of Arkansas/Fayetteville, and then transferred to SMU in Dallas. There she earned her BFA in painting, studied sculpture under James Surls, printmaking with Larry Scholder, art history with Annemarie Carr, Mary Vernon, and Bill Jordan, and went on to complete a MFA in museum education with Nancy Berry. She met Rick Geyer while student teaching at St. Mark’s School and they married in 1977. Her thirteen year career in art museum work began in the conservation lab at the Kimbell, which led to the organization of a large exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art that introduced the public to the art, science, and ethics of art conservation.

 From Rockefeller education intern to McDermott Research Associate, her expertise developed in the area of collection management. She was selected to attend the Getty Museum Management Institute, and was a speaker at several national museum conferences. As special projects coordinator for the Director, Harry Parker, she pioneered an early computer system to assist with the DMA’s collection inventory and relocation to a new building. She wrote grants, interviewed trustees, researched museum ethics and standards, and curated small exhibitions of prints and drawings. Later, as Deputy Director for Planning, under Director Rick Brettell, she developed the architectural program for the Hamon Wing. During that time, the Geyer family (with two small children), moved to Austin.
She left the DMA to pursue her own art work in 1990. This began with a simple ceramics class at the Laguna Gloria Art School, where she was introduced to porcelain, and grew into a home studio where she continues to create. She served as a consultant to the Texas Association of Museums, the Austin Museum of Art, the San Jacinto Museum, Carrabba Conservation, and to Research Planning Consultants. As Adjunct Professor she taught ceramics and painting at Concordia University . While her glazed sculptures began to take on theological meaning, along with humor, pop culture and art history, she enrolled in a lay program at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin. There she completed a Masters of Arts in Pastoral Ministry, did independent studies with Betty Sue Flowers,  and was appointed Adjunct Professor to co-teach “Art & Soul: The Creative Dialogue of Faith.” For ten years she has organized exhibitions, artists’ retreats, and art workshops at Laity Lodge, a retreat center supported by the H.E. Butt Foundation.
Her porcelains have been exhibited in a wide range of venues, from Lyons-Matrix Gallery in Austin, the Luce Center for Art & Religion in Washington, D.C., to the IMAGE national conference in Houston, Edith Baker Gallery in Dallas, the Arlington Art Museum, a major installation at the Tyson Foods headquarters, the Museum of Biblical Arts, plus a touring show that began in Vancouver. Recently her “Porcelain Reformation” retrospective, curated and with a catalog by Rick Brettell, was held at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary in Dallas, and onward to the Center for Contemporary Art in Abilene. In 2009 she enjoyed being an artist-in-residence at the University of British Columbia. She has been a featured artist at three national conferences on art and faith, a faculty member for the Glen Workshop in Santa Fe, and studied at the Mosaic Art School in Ravenna, Italy. Publications on Ginger’s work include a chapter by Deborah Sokolove in “Visual Theology”, three essays in IMAGE, a feature story in the Austin American Statesman, in “The Door”, “The Christian Century” and “Blue Rock Review”, plus several newspaper and blog reviews including DMagazine’s Willard Spiegelman. Her work is now represented by Valley House Gallery in Dallas, which hosted an exhibition of porcelains alongside the MAC show. Concurrent with artmaking, Ginger pursues writing, and is preparing an online book project that blends all of her sculptures and paintings into an epic about her character “Chlora.”

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