Tonia Shimon and the Art of Symeon Shimin

  Contemporary Justice and the Child

Professor Emerita of Theater and Dance Tonia Shimin, former member of the UCSB Emeriti Association Board, has won numerous accolades for her work as a teacher, dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker. Her works have been performed in the United States, the Czech Republic, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, Greece, Italy and Mexico. An award-winning dance filmmaker, for among others, the documentary, Mary Anthony: A life in Modern Dance, Professor Shimin has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the recipient of the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Santa Barbara Dance Alliance. However, there is a facet of Professor Shimin’s life and work that resides outside of her significant contributions to the world of dance and film and for which she has received numerous honors.

To add to her long list of accomplishments, Professor Shimin is the curator and editor of The Art of Symeon Shimin (Mercury Press International, 2019), a comprehensive overview of the life and work of her late father. In his long and distinguished career, Symeon Shimin illustrated 57 children’s books, created the original poster for the film version of Gone with the Wind, and is probably best known for his striking mural, Contemporary Justice and the Child, commissioned in 1936 - 1940 by the Public Works Arts Project and still on view in the Department of Justice building in Washington, DC. As the first book devoted solely to Symeon Shimin’s fine art, it includes over 100 plates and archival photographs, essays by arts writers Josef Woodward and Charles Donelan and Metamorphosis, an autobiography by the artist. The materials Professor Shimin gathered for this volume underscore both the significance of her father’s work as well as provide concrete (and breathtaking) evidence of his deep commitment to justice and to displaying the beauty and complexity of the human condition through art. A truly masterful work, The Art of Symeon Shimin, has garnered critical acclaim and been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the 2020 Independent Press Distinguished Favorites Award in the category of Fine Arts. For additional information on the book, the artist and his art, please link to: symeonshimin.com