Terry Svat was born in Cleveland, Ohio. At an early age, her parents noted her interest in art and encouraged her to enroll in art classes at The Cleveland Museum of Art, which just happened to be close by. The classes took place in various rooms throughout the museum and Terry was hooked on art from then on. In college at Kent State University while studying fine art, Terry took a course in printmaking and fell in love with the medium. Although she painted for some years, printmaking was always her fallback.
In later life, as she was gathering and cataloging her art she realized what a profound effect those classes at The Cleveland Museum of Art had on her work.
When her own family began living and working abroad, Terry studied, taught, and worked in many art-related fields in the former Soviet Union, Chile, Argentina, Panama, and Germany. For twelve years abroad, she was exposed to the cultural currents in Russia, Latin America, and Europe.
Upon returning to the U.S. in the 90s, she received an MA in Art Therapy from George Washington University. She worked as an art therapist and taught in the program at GWU. In addition, through most of these years, she worked at the Graphics Workshop in Silver Spring MD and she is the co-founder of the original Washington Printmakers Gallery now in Georgetown.
Over the past 30 some years, Terry’s art has been influenced by the various ways in which people and societies not only leave their mark on their civilizations but also provide a legacy of images, symbols, and monuments that can speak to other societies and other times. Because she had the opportunity to live and travel abroad, Terry was able to study some of the symbols and images of those places. She explored “huacas" from the pre-Columbian period, symbols and images of Stonehenge and Machu Picchu, the significance of the Berlin Wall and its demise, apartheid, and our own Vietnam Wall.
