Stephanie Johnson, associate professor in the Visual and Public Art Department, has been honored by her home town of Berkeley.

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates has declared Oct. 30 Stephanie Anne Johnson Day in the city. The City Council will present her a certificate at its meeting that night.

She is being honored for her work on the Civic Arts Commission, where she chairs the education committee, and for her contributions as a visual artist and internationally known theatrical lighting designer.

Among the city projects she has worked on was a presentation for Berkeley's 2020 Vision Project on the arts as a tool for closing the achievement gap. She was also part of a team that worked on an application for the Kennedy Center's prestigious Any Given Child initiative.

"My work, the collaborations and my research projects point out the role of public policy in sustaining and enhancing arts practices," she said.

As an artist, Professor Johnson uses her installations and mixed media sculptures as a way to preserve and honor the history of Africans. Her work focuses on the use of two primary elements: light and archival materials, which include newspaper articles, photos and found relics. She uses large-scale slide projections in settings such as railroad stations, churches, cemeteries and galleries.

Professor Johnson has a B.F.A. from Emerson College, Boston, an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from San Francisco State University and an M.F.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. She has been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment For The Arts, New Langton Arts and The Money For Women Fund. Commissions include the Richmond Art Center, the city of Oakland and the Arts Festival of Atlanta.

She has exhibited at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, the Berkeley Art Center, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, the Santa Cruz Art League, I.D.E.A. Artspace in Sacramento, and the Bayview Opera House among other galleries. She has been on the faculty at CSUMB since the university opened.

The proclamation reads:

IN HONOR OF STEPHANIE ANNE JOHNSON WHEREAS, Stephanie Anne Johnson has been an active member of the Civic Arts Commission and Chair of the Education Committee; and WHEREAS, she is one the five original faculty members who began the Visual and Public Art Department at California State University, Monterey Bay, in 1994; and WHEREAS, she has been a local, national, and international theater lighting designer for over thirty years, including her work with the late Nora Vaughn at the Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley; and WHEREAS, she is a visual artist with two solo exhibitions and numerous local and national shows; and WHEREAS, she continues to work in the community as a theater practitioner, artist, writer, and arts advocate; NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT I, TOM BATES, Mayor of the City of Berkeley,

do hereby declare October 30, 2012, as

STEPHANIE ANNE JOHNSON DAY in the City of Berkeley in thanks for her many contributions to the city and the community.