By Kyle Whiteman
CCC Journalism Program
BLACKWOOD – Jessica Puma first attended the University of Maryland at College Park, where she double majored in fine arts and art history before she graduated in 1998. While attending the university, she was nominated for the Dedalus Foundation Master of Fine Arts Fellowship, which is a well-known, nationwide scholarship award. She continued on at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where she received her master’s degree of fine arts in painting in 2004.
Puma is an adjunct professor at Camden County College, Lincoln University and Cheltenham Center for the Arts. She teaches Basic Drawing 1, Art Appreciation, Painting 1 and Introduction to Oil Painting, among other selections. She taught as an undergraduate teaching assistant at the University of Maryland for Introduction and Theory of Art in 1997.
Puma has been involved with exhibitions and shows all over the Northeast. In 2003, she was involved in a work group that judged the St. David’s Annual Juried Exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Other juried exhibitions, where artists judge art, that Puma has been involved with include: “Levity” at the Afif Gallery in Philadelphia (’04), “I Ran to Get My Camera, Juried Photography Exhibition” at the Wall Hall Gallery in Harrisburg (’04) and the “Works on Paper” exhibition at Arcadia University (’05). Puma was also involved with several other appearances and performances between 2003 and 2007.