decade

1930s

1933

Jean Conner is born Jean Sandstedt in Lincoln, Nebraska.

decade

1950s

1954

Bruce Conner transfers to the University of Nebraska during the spring semester and meets his future wife, artist Jean Sandstedt.

1955

Jean Conner earns her BFA from the University of Nebraska.

1956

Bruce Conner joins Jean Sandstedt at the University of Colorado Boulder on scholarship after realizing New York is not for him. During that time he cofounds the Experimental Cinema Group (now First Personal Cinema) with Sandstedt and several others. Due to his predilection for skipping classes, he drops out of his program when Sandstedt graduates.

1957

Bruce Conner marries Jean Sandstedt on September 1 in Lincoln, Nebraska (Sandstedt’s hometown). Together, Bruce and Jean Conner move to San Francisco that night.

1957

Bruce Conner and Jean Conner live on Jackson Street around the corner from where artists Sonia Gechtoff, Jay DeFeo, Joan Brown, and Wally Hedrick live on Fillmore Street.

1957

Jean Conner earns her MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder.

1958

Bruce Conner founds the Rat Bastard Protective Association, which includes his wife Jean Conner, Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, David Haselwood, Wally Hedrick, Fred Martin, and Carlos Villa.

decade

1960s

1961

Jean Conner has solo exhibitions at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, where she works as a clerk in the women’s clinic, and City Lights bookstore in San Francisco—both of which her husband, Bruce Conner, helps organize.

1962

Bruce Conner and Jean Conner move back to Wichita, Kansas, and then to the Boston area, living briefly at Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert’s commune.

1965

Bruce Conner and Jean Conner return to San Francisco and live in the Haight-Ashbury district.

decade

1970s

1972

Bruce Conner and Jean Conner organize A Conner Family Show at the Quay Gallery in San Francisco. It also includes works by their nine-year-old son Robert.

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