Nha San Collective - ​Jim Elniski

​Jim Elniski is an artist and clinical social worker who works as both creator and catalyst. His community-based art projects, in conjunction with various human-service organizations, educational sites and neighborhood associations, explore the dynamic interplay of the aesthetic experience, human behavior, and the social and natural environment. These projects typically develop over time and involve various gathering activities. These activities, in turn, become the contact points for dialogue and interpersonal exchange, which are integral to the work and provide an opportunity for re-examination of the relationship of the physical and social environment.

Employing a trans-disciplinary approach, linking individual and collective expressions of the human ecology, his special interest as an artist, educator, therapist, and clinical consultant is how we contact, shape, and are shaped by the world around us. Sustainability is revealed a generative ongoing process of give and take.

Elniski lives and works in Chicago where he is an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute and psychotherapist in private practice. He holds an MFA in Multimedia from the University of Iowa and an MSW from the University of Illinois, Chicago. His individual work and community projects have been exhibited nationally and internationally.