The Susan Kathleen Black Foundation

Susan T. Fisher is the Director for the Art Institute at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. She is the former Coordinator for the Botanical Illustration Program at Denver Botanic Gardens where she created the Certificate Program in Botanical Art and Illustration known throughout the United States. Susan is on the faculties of the Art Institute, Denver Botanic Gardens and Filoli Gardens in California. Ms Fisher is the president of the American Society of Botanical Artists. Her BA degree includes three years of advanced study in art history at the Universite de Bordeaux in France.

Jim Johnson AAF, AIFD, TMF is a Distinguished Lecturer in the Department of Horticulture at Texas A&M University. He is also the Director of the Benz School of Floral Design and the Benz Gallery of Floral Art. Mr. Johnson an Indiana florist for 14 years prior coming to Texas A&M in 1975, teaches all advanced floral design courses and serves as advisor to SAIFD, the student floral design club. Jim has taught classes and given keynote design presentations all over the US, Canada, Mexico, Germany, and Holland. He is co-author of the Texas Design Seminar, an accredited design program for Texas Garden Club flower show judges. And he has authored five of twelve courses in the nationally acclaimed Professional Certified Florist program. Johnson has received many awards including the Texas A&M Distinguished Faculty Achievement award in Teaching, The Texas A&M College of Agriculture's Honor Professor Award, The 2000 Frances Jones Poetker Award given by the American Horticulture Society, Texas State Florist Association Distinguished Achievement Award and the AIFD Award for Distinguished Service to the Floral Industry.

PhD and MSc from School of Plant Sciences, University of Reading (UK); the Kew Diploma in Horticulture, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (UK); Honorary Lecturer, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Reading; World Conservation Union (IUCN) - Species Survival Commission Plant Conservation, Committee Chair; Member, IUCN-SSC Palm and Cycad Specialist Groups; Scientific advisor to the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group and Korean Plant Specialist Group of the IUCN/SSC; Field work experience in East and South Africa, South America, the Caribbean and Mediterranean Basins, oceanic islands, and temperate Asia.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR - The Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Houston, Texas. July 1998 to present.
Executive position in the Glassell School of Art, a division of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Directs and oversees financial management, fund-raising in the private and public sectors, strategic and fiscal planning, curriculum development and long range goals for the junior and studio schools. Develops schedule of classes and works with director on course offerings. Curator and director of exhibition program. Writes and oversees the production of scholarly publications on the history of contemporary art and theory as related to the exhibition program. Works with the critical studies positions within the Core program. Works with visiting artists, critics and curators on educational programming. Closely involved with trustees and committee members. Serves as Acting Director in the absence of the Director.

Morten E. Solberg has spent his lifetime developing his unique style of painting that he is known for, yet is a versatile artist in all mediums. He paints in Oil, Acrylic, and Watercolor and his techniques range from photo-realism to total abstraction. There was never a time that he can remember wanting to be anything other than an artist. Years of pursuing his craft via design studios and commercial art brought Mort to the West.
While living in Southern California's Orange County, he firmly established himself in the art world with memberships in the American Watercolor Society, the National Watercolor Society, the Society of Animal Artists, Wildlife Artists of the World and Knickerbocker Artists. Mort shed his commercial ties and concentrated on fine art and has been painting full time since 1971.
Awards and inclusions in prestigious collections followed. His paintings have graced the covers of numerous magazines, and he has been featured in American Artist, Wildlife Art News, Art West, Watercolor, Sports Afield, Sporting Classic, Southwest Art and Orange County Illustrated. American Artist chose Mort as their Artist of the Year in 1986. His accomplishments have earned him listings in Who's Who International Biographies, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Art, and Who's Who in the West. In 1993, Mort was elected to U.S. Art Magazine "Artist Hall of Fame". In 2001 Wildlife Art Magazine established Mort as a "Master Artist".

David J. Wagner, L.L.C., is a limited liability corporation based in the art colony of the Door County on the northwest shore of Lake Michigan. It produces traveling exhibitions, and provides curatorial, educational, and museum management services nationwide. It's President, David Wagner, Ph.D., is the company's chief Curator and Tour Director. Wagner has served as Tour Director of ART AND THE ANIMAL for the prestigious Society of Animal Artists in New York City for nearly twenty years (http://www.societyofanimalartists.com/exhibits.html). He also serves as Curator/Tour Director for THE HORSE IN FINE ART of the American Academy of Equine Art (http://www.aaea.net/), THE ART OF ROBERT BATEMAN (http://www.robertbateman.ca/events.html), and for BLOSSOM ~ ART OF FLOWERS (http://www.susankblackfoundation.org/blossom.htm). David Wagner has taught Museum Studies at Björklunden, Lawrence University’s Door County Campus, Colorado College, and the Museum Studies Department of the Graduate School of New York University.