Laura Harden, Director Laura Harden is a San Francisco artist working in painting and photography. Harden received her Bachelor of Arts in radio, television and film from the American University in Washington DC, and her MFA in Photography from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She formerly held the position of full time faculty at the Academy of Art University teaching both documentary and fine art courses. Over recent years her paintings and photography have been included in numerous exhibitions including "Values: Drawing and Photography," "Surface and Substance, Works on Paper," "Diminuendo and Crescendo, Smallworks," and "The Nature of Landscape" at the SFSS Gallery, San Francisco. In 2007 she served as a panelist with curator Peter Selz on, "The Commoditization of Art and Its Significance to the Authentic Artist Today." Harden's photographic work resonates with her painting, further engaging narrative and poetic imagery often drawing on the documentary framework. From 2002 to 2007 she worked on an ongoing photographic project titled, "Images From Arkansas." For this work she was a Semi-Finalist at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and a finalist in Photographer's Forum Magazine "Best of Photography 2004". Photographs from the Arkansas project have been included in numerous juried exhibitions, jurors for which included: Sue Brisk of Magnum Photos, Robert Fitzpatrick, Director of Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Karen Haas, Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Anne Wilkes Tucker, Curator of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Harden also won the "Arthur Griffin Legacy Award" 2003 and Best in Show at Humboldt Arts Council - "The Northwest Eye" in 2003. She is currently a member of the SFMOMA's Photography Accessions Committee for 2007-2010 Laura Harden is Co-founder and Director of the San Francisco Studio School.