Valerie Weilmuenster's formal training as an illuminator began when she was trained as an engrosser at a Chicago Studio. For the past 15 years, she has traveled the United States conducting Illumination workshops. She has designed greeting cards and plaques for The Abbey Press & Printing House.

Valerie's work has been exhibited in many juried shows and published in books and magazines. Valerie has served on the faculty of four international calligraphy conferences and has attended sixteen as a student. Her work has been exhibited in many juried shows, including 17 of the Chicago Calligraphy Collective's annual juried shows held at the Newberry Library, 'Alpha Mark' -a traveling exhibit of the Association for the Calligraphic Arts, the Fine Line, Benedictine University, and 'The Graceful Envelope' - a traveling exhibit of the Smithsonian Postal Museum. Valerie has artwork published in the books 'The Art of Color Calligraphy' and the 'Speedball Textbook' and the magazines 'Somerset Studio', 'A Magazine about Letterheads' and 'Letter Arts Review Annual'.

She has been on the faculty of the St. Michael Institute of Sacred Art from its inception in 1999 and was commissioned to do the calligraphy for the Stations of the Cross and to design, letter and illuminate the Prayer of St. Edmund, both of which are now displayed in Our Lady of the Assumption Chapel on Enders Island.

Planned Sacred Art Programs in 2010:

4/25/10 - Manuscript Illumination & Gilding

6/20/10 - Advanced Manuscript Illumination

10/24/10 - Fundamentals of Calligraphy