Suzanne G. Hofmeister

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Suzanne Gray Hofmeister received both her B.S. (1962) and M.S. (1971) degrees in Art Education from the State University College at Buffalo. Her jewelry has been exhibition at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center in Craft Art Western New York exhibitions in 2000 and 2002, and in New York Collects Buffalo State, a comprehensive survey of Buffalo State College faculty and alumni held in 2004.  She participated in Herd About Buffalo, a public art project organized to benefit the Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Burchfield-Penney Art Center in 2000. In 2004, she was selected for 100 American Craftsmen, a juried exhibition held annually at the Kenan Center in Lockport, NY.

Hofmeister’s unique designs were commissioned by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Shop, including signature brooches for Monet at Giverny in 1999 and for Triumph of French Painting in 2001. In 2003 she created the Board of Directors Presentation Piece for Art on Wheels, a community art project organized by the Burchfield-Penney Art Center. Among Buffalo collectors of her art are Annette Cravens, Ann Forrester, Jane E. Gailey, Anne Hayes, and Sue Wentworth.

Sue and Jim Hofmeister, her husband of 54 years, were instrumental in capital campaign fund-raising among college alumni for the new building designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, LLC that opened November 2008. They played a major role co-chairing the museum’s Collectors Club, served on the Advisory Council, and donated funds and artworks to the collection. She and Jim operated their business as Persia Gray from the Tri-Main Building for many years.