Diane Bush, MA '81

Getting people to think differently

Imagine you're looking at a grid of four Richard Nixon images, each spouting "I am not a crook" hip-hop fashion. That image might give you some clues to the mind behind its co-creator, Diane Bush, M.A., '81.

Bush's career and life seem to have developed into an organically integrated whole that's informed by a unique sensibility - politically engaged, fun-loving, generous. This sensibility is revealed in her efforts to give back to the various communities in which she's made her home over the past 30-odd years. For Bush, "giving back" manifests itself in educating, volunteering and making art.

Bush is first and foremost an artist whose primary medium is photography. Her work has appeared in numerous national and international group exhibits, solo shows and publications. It also has won multiple awards. Bush considers her work political satire, which, she says, "is education; getting people to think differently and not just accept what they read."

Her most recent project, for instance, takes an anti-war stance. She uses TV images of newscasters, politicians and talking heads and throws bleach on the pictures, creating metaphorical "warheads." The Nixon piece is part of an ongoing "Talking Pictures" series, on which she collaborates with her husband Steven Baskin.

Tireless volunteer

As a volunteer, Bush has been tireless. During the several years she lived in England, she started a photo gallery in a Manchester bookstore, a first in that city. While she lived in Buffalo, she created the Urban Art Project, a non-profit organization that provided visual art for the city's downtown redevelopment areas. For the past year, her volunteer efforts have focused on helping save Las Vegas's Contemporary Arts Collective. "I rallied people, helped establish a new board, found grant money. Now, we have money in the bank, the collective is back on its feet, and I'm president," she says, laughing. "That's been a major effort."

For all the success she's had as an artist and in her volunteer work, Bush seems to value her role as educator most highly. She taught in the photography department at Villa Maria College in Buffalo for six years. There, she reinvigorated the program and helped put it on the map of collegiate photography departments. It was an experience she relished: "Students gained national prizes and awards," she says. "And my job satisfaction was 100 percent!"

Her current role is educational as well. As cultural supervisor of Clark County (NV) Parks & Community Services, she runs a growing public art program. She also oversees an art education program in which the county's cultural division partners with the Las Vegas school district and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. Bush says, "We provide professional development for teachers, encouraging and training them to use the arts in teaching academic subjects."

UB helped develop her love of teaching

Her time at UB contributed to her career path: "If I had not gotten my M.A., I would never have gone into teaching." After she returned to the U.S. from England, she was recruited into UB's photography program as a teaching assistant. When she later took on the teaching position at Villa Maria College, she says, "All of a sudden, I got really good at teaching. It took a couple of years, but I really made use of my M.A."

Her time in the master's program also afforded her the opportunity to complete Main Street, a series of documentary photographs that was turned into a video shown on public television. Though Bush clearly enjoys her job as a Nevada "cultural czarina," she still yearns for teaching. "I can never be fired; I have tremendous job security," she says. "But if I win Megabucks, I can go back to teaching."

In the meantime, her desire to give back to the community continues. Her "warhead" work is connected to the "bigger community of TV watchers," she says, "people who look at what they see and take it with a grain of salt. Now that we're getting into an election year, I'm thinking I need to do a lot more and get it out there. It's a good time to start churning out new work. I've got to work fast."

Written by Grace Lazzara
October 2003

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