Bio

Mary Yess received her MFA in painting from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn (NY), where she studied with George McNeil. Over the course of her career, Yess has participated in numerous exhibits. She is a former member of Muse Gallery in Philadelphia, and her work is included in many private and public collections. Yess was a founder and the first elected president of the Trenton Artists Workshop Association (TAWA), in Trenton, NJ, and served on the boards of the Trenton City Museum, the Trenton Arts Commission, and the Mercer County Cultural & Heritage Commission.

Yess has curated shows throughout NJ, served as a juror for numerous shows, and was a member of several NJ State Council on the Arts grant review panels and public arts inclusion panels. In 1988, Yess, then Executive Director of the Princeton Art Association (PAA), led the project to find a new home for PAA and approached the City of Trenton (NJ) with a proposal to run the building that eventually became its only home. Along with the move, she helped PAA change its name to Artworks to be more representative of the arts in central NJ. During her ten years as Executive Director of Artworks, Yess curated or co-curated numerous exhibits.