Reunions artist Barbara Wallace ’80 never lost her ‘burning desire to engage in art’
When Barbara Wallace would go to sleep as a child, her father often would still be seated in front of his easel with his paints and brushes. A public-school art teacher and administrator, he was also a talented artist whose oil and acrylic paintings covered the walls of their Philadelphia home. On the backs of his works, he would sometimes pen an original poem that he would memorize and recite. Wallace inherited his passion and creativity and was tempted to follow in his footsteps, but when she was accepted at Princeton University, she turned down an art scholarship to Bryn Mawr College and chose to study psychology. “My parents told me that being an artist was not a viable career, as they did not thrive economically,” Wallace said. “They knew I would always be able to fit art into my life.”
They were prophetic about fitting art into her life. In addition to coursework in psychology and African American studies, in which Wallace earned a certificate, she took Princeton classes in sculpture and lithography. Her mother, also an educator, had taught her embroidery, and Wallace soon became recognized on campus for her “wearable art” in the form of jean jackets with elaborately embroidered back panels. “After my first Princeton winter, I made a warm winter coat sewn from recycled jean patches in various hues of blue,” she said.
When Wallace was at Princeton, a Philadelphia friend told her that “you are an artist trying to be a scientist.” But Wallace did more than try to be a scientist. She achieved prominence. After graduating with a master’s and Ph.D. from the City University of New York, Wallace went on to teach health education at Teachers College, Columbia University for 33 years and founded its Center for Health Equity and Urban Science Education. She published nine academic books, and her research focused on health disparities from HIV/AIDS prevention in Africa to cancer prevention, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, and on healthy eating and physical activity. “I made history by graduating 168 doctoral students — setting a record at the college for the largest number and most diverse graduates from around the world,” said Wallace, who retired from Teachers College in 2023 but maintains a private practice as a clinical psychologist.
Her “burning desire to engage in art” never subsided. The day after she defended her dissertation in clinical psychology, she went to Central Park in Manhattan and painted a landscape in oil. At Columbia, she decorated the ceiling, walls and floor of her office with abstract designs in purple, gold and green hues to create a peaceful, meditative refuge for her students. Over the years, she created the logos and letterheads for her academic units; she designed the covers for conference programs and books. “Art is my passion, something I feel compelled to do,” she said.
In 2019, Wallace displayed some of her artwork at the “Thrive” alumni affinity conference on the Princeton campus — leading to an invitation to paint an image for the cover of the events program for Reunions 2025, her class’s milestone 45th Reunion. For her cover art, titled “Nod to the Giant Elm Trees Surrounding Nassau Hall,” she made Nassau Hall’s cupola the focal point, with its clock hands pointing to 2 p.m. — the hour when the P-rade begins. The giant elms remind her of her own graduation ceremony in 1980, when her determined mother was able to spot her amidst other students seated behind one of the large trees. To Wallace, the bald eagle, inspired by two sculptures atop columns flanking the University’s FitzRandolph Gate, suggests “the human journey to rise above obstacles, soar free and develop a consciousness that connects with the highest sacred spiritual realms.”
As a tribute to her father, Wallace penned a poem to accompany her painting that closes with: “As you process in celebration with classmates, nod to the giant elm trees surrounding Nassau Hall and feel the wisdom and love they emanate as you walk along your way!”
