BIO

Bethany “Betni” Kalk  is an artist, designer, muralist, advocate of community art and professor of art and design. She was born in Canada and at age three her missionary parents moved the family to Papua New Guinea (PNG) where they lived for 10 years. She lived in the States for high school, college and graduate school where she studied graphic design, painting, and drawing. When not teaching, she explores the natural landscapes of other countries, and visits different regions of the U.S. to and from artist residencies.

She co-lead a mural project called Art + Infrastructure in Omaha since 2020. She created a website/guide for helping communities and artists make impactful community murals at communitymurals.info. She also created a digital humanities project that collaborates with the Sawiyano of the East Sepik Province of New Guinea to document their arts, crafts and lifestyle (tumbuna.org).

She has exhibited in numerous locations including Lexington, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York, Omaha and San Francisco. She has received numerous grants and residencies around the U.S. including Sitka Center, San Juan National Forest, the Anderson Center and the Pine Needles Program through the Science Museum of Minnesota.  

She currently lives in Omaha, NE with her partner and two children where she teaches graphic design at Creighton University in the Computer Science, Design and Journalism Dept.

IG is @betni.