ABOUT ADRIENNE R. SCHWARTE

BIOGRAPHY 

Adrienne R. Schwarte currently serves as a Professor of Design and the Coordinator of the Sustainability Studies Minor and Chair of the Division of Fine Arts at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. She completed my M.F.A. in Multimedia Design with an emphasis in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities, MN) and a B.A. in Communication and Art from Buena Vista University (Storm Lake, IA) and holds a Professional Certificate in Campus Sustainability Leadership from the Institute for Global Sustainability from the University of Vermont (Burlington, VT). She has worked as a graphic designer, photographer, consultant and communications assistant for over twenty five years for companies and organizations such as the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, KTTC-TV (NBC affiliate), the NHL Dallas Stars Hockey Team, The Little River Watershed Association, Mountain Challenge, Mane Support, Navia Benefit Solutions, A Place to Stay, and local candidates for TN State house, and Blount County elected offices among others. She served as the Maryville College “Great Smokies Sustainability Project: Out of the Box Community Sustainability, United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA), Environmental Education (EE) Region 4 Grant Principal Investigator from 2022-2024.

Her work involves twenty five years of experience as a professional photographer and graphic designer, including both political and corporate campaigns. She also provides over two decades of teaching experiences in multiple disciplines including art, design and environmental studies, political science and sustainability. Schwarte is experienced in writing and securing federal grants on the environment, energy and sustainability. Schwarte has been published in FATE In Review, the International Library of Photography, Sustainability, The Journal of Record, and has a chapter on experiential study abroad, art and sustainability in Costa Rica in World Trends on Education for Sustainable Development, by W. L. Filho (2011).

 

I enjoy organic gardening, traveling, hiking the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, knitting, baking pies and watching my two sons, Rhys and Kian play baseball with my husband Darin.

Download a copy of my CV​ here 

ARTIST’S STATEMENT 

Much of my creative production is a split between client-based work in graphic design and traditional and digital photography, which explores the themes of visual polarization, geotourism and sustainability principles, including international/transformational experiences. As a designer, I am constantly immersed in the gate keeping and agenda-setting that comes from working in front of a computer screen or behind a lens and find that all design and all photography have a social context and social bias based on the artist’s intentions, which is ever present in my mind when I work. My work investigates the interaction of the natural landscape with the built environment, be that relationship harmonious or filled with strife. It parallels my own journey to understand the designer’s role in impacting the natural landscape, which has been both extremely positive and detrimentally negative historically. When content is situated at polar ends of the spectrum stark contrasts in form can exist, but their proximity exhibits commonalities that are not fully understood when they are apart. It is the dichotomy between the two ends of the spectrum that I find most stimulating and emotionally arresting.  

Please contact me at the email address below if you are in need of design or sustainability consulting services and I look forward to working with you.​

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And, since October 2023, I'm also an Independent Pampered Chef Consultant - You Can Shop My Website Here:

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