Biography

Miriam Socoloff

Miriam Socoloff is an artist and educator. Miriam was the lead artist in the Urban Gateways at Gallery 37 bench and furniture painting program on Block 37. From 1998 through 2007, Miriam was the curriculum coordinator and drawing and painting instructor for Gallery 37 School Advanced Arts Education Program. Her students have won national awards and have been featured in College Board, Scholastic, Young Arts publications, and Art Forum. 

Miriam, in collaboration with Cynthia Weiss, has created mosaic murals for buildings in the Chicago area. Their murals have been published in A Guide to Chicago Murals by Mary Lackritz Gray (University of Chicago Press, 2001) and in Urban Art Chicago by Olivia Gude and Jeff Huebner (Ivan R. Dee Publisher, 2000).  

In 1998, Miriam was awarded the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching and a Chicago Artists International grant to study mosaic technique in Italy. She was selected for an artist residency at the International School of Art, Umbria, Italy and four artist residencies at OxBow.  In 2003, Miriam was awarded a Fulbright Memorial Fund Fellowship to study in Japan. In 2006, Miriam was awarded a Fund for Teachers award to study mosaic smalti technique in Italy. In 2011, Miriam received the U.S. Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award.  

Currently, Miriam teaches in the After School Matters program. She has also provided workshops at Lill Street Center and the Chicago Mosaic School, as well as supervising student art teachers for Columbia College. Miriam is a member of Ten Chicago Women Artists.