Jessica Thalmann '06, Young Alumni Award Recipient 2024
"TFS helped me to be open-minded. I really developed a curiosity about other people, other places, other perspectives, and an empathy for others. Empathy is what I mostly connected to and still connect to. I’d also say community was a really big thing. That like-minded community, DIY-kind of spirit was really active when I was a student. So giving back to the community is something that I still continue now in my professional practice."
An accomplished artist, curator and educator, alumna Jessica Thalmann has had her work shown at some of the world’s leading art institutions, such as the Aperture Foundation, International Centre for Photography, Humble Arts Foundation, VIVO Media Arts Centre, Museum of Contemporary Art, Harbourfront Centre, and in group exhibitions across New York, Toronto and Vancouver. Her commissioned sculpture and mural will be unveiled to the public and be on permanent display at BMO’s new flagship branch at the Toronto Eaton Center in the fall of 2024, joining artist Michael Snow’s installation as a landmark in one of Canada’s busiest tourist destinations.
As an educator, Thalmann has taught at the International Centre for Photography, MacLaren Art Centre, Toronto School of Art, Gallery 44 and City College of New York, and has been an artist-in-residence at the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity and the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Thalmann is also a recipient of various grants from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts, and received an MFA in Advanced Photographic Studies from ICP-Bard College and a BFA in Visual Arts from York University.
TFS had a major influence on Thalmann during her years as a student. The school's commitment to building a collaborative community instilled values of empathy that remain with her to this day. She sits on nonprofit boards and donates artwork to charities like the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and Casey House, a hospital for people living with HIV.
