 Rachel Fletcher was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1947. She began her career in lighting and stage design for the theater with degrees from Hofstra University (B.A. in theater arts), SUNY Albany (M.A. in dramatic literature), and Humboldt State University (M.F.A. in lighting/stage design). She taught theater design at Tufts University in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has been a faculty member of the New York School of Interior Design since 1996, and for ten years was a contributing editor to the Nexus Network Journal. Her professional work designing theatrical spaces led to an interest in the principles of geometric proportion and harmony as a design system, including time as a geometer and teacher of geometry and proportion at dozens of universities, museums, and institutions in the United States and Europe, as well as for school-age children and adult professionals. In this capacity, she received an International Center for Jefferson Studies Fellowship Award from the Thomas Jefferson Foundation to study geometric proportions in Jefferson’s architectural works.
Fletcher is the author of Infinite Measure: Learning to Design in Geometric Harmony with Art, Architecture, and Nature. She was the creator/curator of the museum exhibits “Infinite Measure,” “Design by Nature,” and “Harmony by Design: The Golden Mean” and the author of the latter’s exhibit catalog. As a community activist, she is the founding director of the Great Barrington Housatonic River Walk, which was designated a National Recreation Trail by the National Park Service in 2009, and the founding co-director of the Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail. For her significant contributions to conservation and civic improvements, she has received an Environmental Merit Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, citations from the Garden Club of America, and the National Urban Hometown River Award in Grassroots Activism from American Rivers, among other honors. She resides in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. |
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Rachel Fletcher 
