Shirley Jean Jones Plymouth Avenue Art Studio, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Shirley Jean Jones is an Artist/ Educator, who resides on the northside of Minneapolis. She was born in Chicago and studied at Eastern Illinois University, Chicago State University and the University of Minnesota. She completed her MFA at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Shirley taught for many years in the public schools - she recently retired from Central High School in St. Paul – and continues to provide art classes to neighborhood children at her Plymouth Avenue Art Studio. Shirley spends much of her time creating, exhibiting and selling innovative art pieces and jewelry. She describes her jewelry, in particular, as “small sculptures” that reflect her pursuit of the unusual and her use of found objects and mixed mediums (i.e., glass, metal). Most of her work has a deeper meaning that is embedded in her African roots, the natural world and the power of the spiritual. Shirley’s illustrious career has been sprinkled with exhibitions at the Phipps Art Center, the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Walker Art Center, Jahn’s Art Gallery, and the annual Juneteenth Celebration in Minneapolis. More recently, Shirley has coordinated an interactive art project at the annual Kwanzaa Celebration at the Minnesota History Center. Shirley has also served on the board of the Metropolitan Cultural Arts Center, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art in Saint Paul.
