Barbara Waterman-Peters

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Barbara Waterman-Peters was born in Topeka. She received her BFA in painting from Washburn University in 1973, her MFA in painting from Kansas State University in 1998, taught at both institutions between 1985 and 2005, and has been active in many arts organizations. Her award-winning work has been shown regionally, nationally, and internationally in more than 250 exhibitions. It is in the collections of the Spencer Museum of Art, the Beach Museum of Art, the Mulvane Art Museum, the Arkansas Arts Center, the Lincoln Art Center, Cedar Crest, and the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery at Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, in numerous corporate and private collections, and is currently represented by several galleries, including the Eclectic Gallery, San Antonio, TX, 75^th Street Gallery in Prairie Village, KS (Kansas City), Strecker-Nelson Gallery in Manhattan, KS, Warehouse 414, Beauchamp Gallery, South Wind Gallery, and the Collective Art Gallery, of which she is a founding member, all in Topeka.

Waterman-Peters has been a juror, critic, panelist, presenter, and curator, including "Water Marks," an exhibition of watercolors from around the United States which she did for the Mulvane Art Museum in 1996. She was awarded an assistantship in 1981 from the Kansas Arts Commission, and recognized as a "Woman of Distinction in the Arts" by the Kaw Valley Girl Scouts in 1996. Between 2001 and 2004 she was awarded three artist residencies. She is included in WHO’S WHO of AMERICAN WOMEN. In 2003 she was awarded a Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Contributions to the State of Kansas. Washburn University honored her with membership in NONOSO, and she is a member in both Arts and Letters in the National League of American Pen Women. She has been the featured artist for the Arthritis Foundation, the 501 Art for Kids and the American Cancer Society fundraisers. In 2005 she painted the image used on Governor Kathleen Sebelius’ Christmas card. Since 2006 she has been the portraitist for the Auburn-Washburn School District Hall of Fame.

She was invited to show in both the Kansas Inaugural and the Kansas Masters Exhibitions in 2007. That same year "Painting the Essence: Theater Images by Barbara Waterman-Peters," comprised of the work for the Andrew and Georgia Neese Gray Theater (Washburn University) was held at the Mulvane Art Museum. She has been the visual artist for the university theater since 1999.

In 2008 she was asked to design the image for the Sunflower Music Festival, to paint a violin for the Topeka Symphony League, was invited to participate in the Florence Biennale in Florence, Italy, was nominated for a Kansas Governor’s Arts Award, and was invited to be a mentor in the 2009 Artist Exchange Program through the Salina Art Center which is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Also in 2009 she will be part of the next "Kansas Masters" exhibition, and will serve on the Arts and Culture committee under Quality of Life in the Heartland Visioning Project.

Waterman-Peters is also a writer. Her articles on art and artists have been published in various newspapers and magazines, including FORUM (Kansas City) and NEW ART EXAMINER (Chicago). In addition, she has written exhibition catalogs, designed book covers, illustrated books, contributed to several anthologies, including Washburn University’s INSCAPE, and recently published BACI, a book which she wrote, illustrated, and designed. Currently she writes for TOPEKA Magazine.