Sheryl Oring

Sheryl Oring grew up in Grand Forks, N.D., and graduated from the University of Colorado in 1987 with a degree in journalism. She headed west to California and spent a decade working as a newspaper reporter and editor before moving to Berlin in 1997 to focus on art. There, she created an installation called Writer s Block by collecting hundreds of antique typewriters and caging them in steel sculptures. This was first displayed on the site of the Nazi book burning in Berlin and has since been shown at the Jewish Museum Berlin; at the Buda Castle in Budapest; the Boston Public Library and the New York Public Library s Bryant Park.

After six years in Berlin, she returned to the United States in 2003 and conceived of I Wish to Say as a way to document the diversity of political viewpoints at a crucial point in U.S. history and to offer regular people a chance to speak their minds. (continues)

A belief in the power of free speech and the sanctity of the First Amendment are at foundations of her work. Oring has worked as a reporter and editor at publications including the New York Times; the International Herald Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle. She is the recipient of a 2006 grant from the Creative Capital Foundation; a 2005 New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship; a European Journalism Fellowship at the Free University in Berlin; a Robert Bosch Foundation fellowship; and an Arthur F. Burns Fellowship for Journalists. In September 2004, she was profiled by Peter Jennings as Person of the Week on ABC's World News Tonight.

Her artwork has been shown at galleries and museums in Europe, the United States and India and her artist books are in the permanent collections of institutions including the Museum of Modern Art; the Tate Britain; the Brooklyn Museum; Cornell University; Yale University; Smith College; Skidmore College; and the University of California-Santa Barbara.

Oring met photographer Dhanraj Emanuel while doing an I Wish to Say show in Memphis, Tenn. In 2006, they traveled 11,000 miles across the United States to gather cards and photos for the I Wish to Say book. Oring and Emanuel live in Brooklyn, N.Y.