Atara Grenadir MFA, ATR-BC is Chair of the Art Department at Touro College. She has an MFA and a BFA from Oklahoma University, and she has also studied art at Carnegie Mellon and art therapy at The New School. Besides teaching at Touro, Atara is an exhibiting abstract painter and a registered and board-certified art therapist.  She has published a cookbook called The Fine Art of Cooking with Simplicity and Joy presenting healthy recipes illustrated with her original paintings and drawings.

Atara’s paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the U.S.  She has exhibited in New York in group and solo shows at the Artsforum and New Art Center galleries and NYATA exhibitions for over ten years. Her paintings were exhibited in the NYCArt Expo in 2011. Out of state, she has exhibited at Dart Industries, Los Angeles, the Milaam Gallery in Houston, the Adams-Middleton Gallery in Dallas and at an invitational at the State Capitol, Oklahoma City. In 2015, she was invited to show at the Goddard Art Center in Ardmore, OK in an exhibit of art by contemporary women artists. Her paintings are in the Oklahoma U. museum and many private collections nationwide.

Atara has been teaching at Touro College for 26 years, during which time she developed the art program that offers the Visual Arts minor and a minor in Art Therapy. She coordinates the Art Club and curates the student art galleries at LAS Flatbush in the second floor student lounge and the lobby. Many of her paintings can be seen on her website. 

Education

• MFA Art - U. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 1973
• BFA Art - U. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 1971
• Summer Program: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Area(s) of Expertise

Contemporary Art – Abstraction in Painting, Color Theory – Split Complementary System, Art Therapy, Art History

Academic and Professional Honors

Awards and Certifications

• ATR-BC, Art Therapy Credentials Board, 2007
• ATR, Art Therapy Credentials Board, 2005
• Art Therapy Certificate, The New School, New York, NY

Professional Organizations

• AATA - American Art Therapy Association
• NYATA – New York Art Therapy Association

• 2012 - ATR-BC Recertification, Art Therapy Credentials Board

Solo Art Exhibitions

• 2011 - Conscious Community, New Art Center, December-January, New York, NY
• 2010 - Birkas HaChamah, Contemporary Art Network, December-January, New York, NY

Group Art Exhibitions

• 2012 - Candescence, New Art Center, January, New York, NY
• 2011 - Art Expo 2011, Pier 94, New York, NY 

Regular Courses Taught

• COA 101 OL – Art of Western Civilization (online)
• COA 222 – Workshop in Studio Art: Painting I
• COA 224 – Studio Art: Drawing & Painting I
• COA 226 – Workshop in Studio Art: Painting II
• PSY 209 – Art Therapy I
• PSY 309 – Art Therapy II