artist Hershell West with some of his art work

The ARTIST in SOCIETY: Talking with Hershell West

Arts & Diversity to create community

Painter, muralist, teacher of at-risk youth, arts promoter - a well-rounded artist.

getting AC5 award
Hershell West and others being honored by their county government.
Hershell West teaching at-risk youth

RIGHT:  Hershell West at the installation of the first annual exhibit of The Art of Living Black (now called The Art of the African Diaspora).   This large exhibit was the brain-child of Jan Hart-Schuyers and Rae Louise Hayward.  Learn more about it in the documentary.

In conjunction with a screening of the film, Hershell West himself is often available to personally answer questions. 

Hershell West is well known in the San Francisco Bay Area as a painter, a muralist (both for his own commissions and as chief assistant to muralist John Wehrle), and a teacher of at-risk youth.  Particularly  successful as a teacher, he came up with new ways to connect with these youth. 

He has also been very active in supporting the arts, serving as board president of several civic arts & cultural commissions, andother arts organizations,.

Born in the segregated South, West got his training in art at the University of South Florida where he also discovered his love for using art as a way to engage with society.  He painted the first mural commissioned by the city of Tampa, and later executed several others before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he has lived ever since. 

Hershell West at installation of first The Art of Living Black
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