CAROLE FISHER:

Carole Gorney Fisher was born in 1942 to parents Elsie (Winterfeldt) and Leo Gorney. She grew up in south Minneapolis, along with her sister Diane Gorney. Fisher attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and then attended the College of Arts and Architecture at Pennsylvania State University, where she received a Master of Fine Arts.

Her early career included designing graphics for the Taste Section of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. In 1979, Carole Fisher returned to her alma mater the Minneapolis College of Art Design (MCAD) as Visiting Artist. She continued at MCAD as an instructor and rose to the rank of Professor, and later served as the Chair of the Fine Arts Division and the Director of the Master of Fine Arts and Post-Baccalaureate Programs. She retired from MCAD in 2010.

In addition to her academic career, Carole Fisher was a founder of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (MAEP) at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA). She also served on the Minneapolis Arts Commission and was a founding member of the feminist artist collective of the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM).

In her practicing artistic career, Fisher was a multimedia artist known for her issue-driven projects and exhibition installations. Her most extensive project included the twenty-year Alaska Oil Spill Project (AOSP), which focused on the long-term ramifications of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Other projects included exploring difficult topics of rape, incest, the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, toxic waste, 9/11, and the U.S. Army's secret spraying of zinc cadmium sulfate of Fisher's childhood neighborhood in the 1950s.

Carole Fisher's solo and group exhibitions have been featured at the Rourke Art Gallery in Moorhead, Minnesota; the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum; the Galleria Del Cavallino in Venice, Italy; the Walker Art Center; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; SOHO 20 and Raw Space in New York; the ARC Gallery in Chicago; the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

In her career, Fisher has received awards and fellowships from the Bush Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

Carole Fisher passed away on April 4, 2024 in Minneapolis.

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These papers are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Carole Fisher Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 17,972

Processing Information:

Processed by: Leif Kopietz, April 2025

Catalog ID number: 9989879439504294

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Following the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound in Alaska, Carole Fisher traveled to Alaska in 1990, 1999, and 2010 to research, photograph, journal, sketch, draw, and conduct interviews to document the ongoing impact of the oil spill. The trips included interviews and re-interviews in numerous Alaskan communities. Fisher's documentation during her trips helped inform over forty exhibitions and presentations exhibited throughout the United States. The twenty-year plus body of work of her trips, exhibitions, and presentations were collectively part of the overall Alaska Oil Spill Project (AOSP).

The section includes: interview planning materials, interviewee letters, and draft and final interview transcripts for Fisher's Alaskan trips (1990-1991, 1999, 2010); information, notes, data, and trip journals compiled and drafted by Fisher (1990, 1999); annotated press clippings on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill and its aftermath (1989-1998); correspondence and trip planning materials (1996-1999); published disaster plans and resource guides, court documents, and articles regarding the oil spill and related topics (1989-1992, 1999, 2009-2010); exhibit planning and development materials, including photographs and slides, exhibit boards, draft texts, design plans, posters, exhibit response notebooks, and correspondence (1989-1996, 1999, 2010); Alaska Oil Spill Project (AOSP) planning documentation and brochures (1990s); reference materials consisting of published reports, curriculum, restoration plans, articles, conference materials, and print materials (1989-2000s).

Interview transcripts

Information and notes

Annotated press clippings

Correspondence and trip planning

Disaster plans, court documents, and disaster resource guides

Exhibits

Brochures, research, and project documentation

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Includes materials related to Carole Fisher's research and exhibition for the Clinton School Project (CSP), which focused on the secret zinc cadmium spraying by the U.S. Army of Fisher's childhood neighbourhood and elementary school in south Minneapolis between 1952 to 1954. Background research includes: newspaper clippings, timeline, and articles regarding the history and political response to spraying, including investigation efforts by Senator Paul Wellstone, and House Representative Martin Sabo (1994-1995); published studies and photocopies of U.S. Army records regarding spraying (1953, 1984, 1994-1995); notes and sources (1994-1995); research notebooks compiled by Fisher containing maps, data, and articles regarding the area impacted by spraying (1994-1995); and interview transcripts from individuals in South Minneapolis impacted by the spraying (September 1995). The section also includes materials related to the exhibition developed from her research, including: exhibition response boards; text and planning notes; correspondence; exhibit boards; database and computer information; attendance information; and response mail (undated, 1994-1995).

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The section includes: sketchbooks, journals, research information, and documentation for numerous exhibitions and projects; applications and grant information; professional information, including teaching contracts, resumes, artist statements, biographical information, reference and letters of recommendation, correspondence, job applications, teaching materials, and conference materials; press, reviews, and articles regarding Fisher's exhibitions and artwork; exhibition catalogs and brochures; portfolios and posters for exhibitions and artwork; and notes, text drafts, planning files, exhibit boards, and exhibit installation documentation, photographs, and slides (1970s-2000s).

Sketches and process documentation

Exhibitions, conferences, and professional information

Portfolios, posters, and miscellaneous oversize

Slides

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Includes materials related to painter, sculptor, printmaker, feminist, and Abstract Expressionist artist Miriam Schapiro. Includes newspaper clippings, Schapiro's exhibition catalogs, notes and exhibition information, and personal letters between Schapiro and Fisher (1970s-2010s).

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Art -- Study and teaching.

Art teachers -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Environmentalism -- Art.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Alaska, 1989 -- Environmental aspects.

Feminism and art -- Minnesota.

Mixed media (Art) -- United States -- Exhibitions.

Women artisans -- Minnesota.

Women artists -- Minnesota.

Persons:

Schapiro, Miriam, 1923-2015, author.

Organizations:

Minneapolis College of Art and Design, author.

Women's Art Registry of Minnesota, author.

Document Types:

Color slides.

Drawings.

Exhibition catalogs.

Interviews.

Photographs.

Posters.

Transcripts.

Sketchbooks.

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