There is a world of creative work that ignores mainstream definitions and approval. Fleisher-Ollman Gallery Director John Ollman, a leading authority on self-taught art, will discuss how this movement developed in Philadelphia, why it prospered here (and in Chicago) before it gained acceptance elsewhere, and how self-taught art has influenced artists, collectors, and exhibitions in area museums.

John Ollman has been actively involved in the field of 20th century self-taught art since the early 1970s. Mr. Ollman received a BFA in sculpture from Philadelphia College of Art and a MFA in sculpture from Indiana University with minor in Art History. He became the director of the Janet Fleisher Gallery in 1970. He has mounted major shows of Bill Traylor, William Edmondson, Horace Pippin, Martin Ramirez, Joseph Yoakum, Henry Darger, Frank Jones, and Purvis Young, among many others. He is on the Board of Advisors of the Fabric Workshop, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and New Observation magazine, and served on the Mayor's Advisory Board for the Arts in Philadelphia. Mr. Ollman lectures around the country on self-taught artists.