Donna Backues

Artist's Biography

Donna Backues has a BA in Studio Art and Graphic Design from Southern Illinois University and an MFA from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She is currently working toward an MA in Urban Studies & Community Arts, from Eastern University.

After finishing her undergraduate degree in 1985, Donna worked as a graphic designer for several years. In 1989, she moved to Indonesia and lived for 18 years raising two children and working alongside her husband in a grass roots development organization. For the first couple of years, Donna invested time in language and culture learning as well as devoting time to painting, drawing, and learning the Javanese technique of batik at a small home industry near her home.

During her last 10 years in Southeast Asia, she founded a village community health program and a community arts program. Her interest in indigenous art forms led to her starting a handicraft non-profit supporting local artisans in West Java, as well as designing batik textiles and woven products for export. She also created illustrations, manuals, and teaching aids for development projects, including materials used in relief efforts during the aftermath of the 2004 Asian Tsunami.

Besides having worked as a teaching artist at the Village of Arts and Humanities and the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, she has been awarded numerous residencies through the Philadelphia Art Museum’s Delphi Art Futures program and Art Partners program and Spiral Q Puppet Theater. In 2013 Donna won first prize in the American Batik Design Competition and in 2014 she was awarded the Art & Change Grant by the Leeway foundation. Besides painting in her studio, Donna teaches, conducts workshops and works at SEAMAAC as an outreach worker for the Indonesian community in South Philadelphia. Four of her paintings are in the Philadelphia Convention Center’s permanent collection. Her murals can be seen in Philadelphia, Camden, NJ and in Leeds, England, and her paintings have been collected and exhibited internationally in Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.