VPA hosts performance artist Zackary Drucker

For Zackary Drucker, a transgender performance artist and television producer, the process of acceptance will only come with education.

“Being trans right now requires this sort of hyphenate way of being. You can’t just be an artist and a producer of a TV show, you have to be an advocate, a public person and a responsible member of your community," Drucker said following a talk Tuesday at Shemin Auditorium in Shaffer Art Building.

From Syracuse but now based in Los Angeles, Drucker visited campus and spoke with students in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. An independent artist, cultural producer and trans woman, Drucker has performed and exhibited her work internationally — including shows in the Whitney Museum of American Art and MoMA PS1, among others.

More recently, Drucker has become known as an Emmy-nominated producer for the docuseries This Is Me, as well as a producer on Golden Globe and Emmy-winning television series Transparent. She is also a cast member on the now-cancelled E! docuseries I Am Cait.

Drucker’s artistic inspiration usually comes from loved ones and their situations.

“The more specific you are, the more universal you are,” Drucker said. “We are in a new era where more interesting stories are being told.”

Responsibility has not hindered Drucker’s art, but has in fact enhanced it. She continues to tell stories of relationships. Now working on season four of Transparent and two self narratives — one of them involving a sequel to performance film Southern for Pussy — Drucker is continuing a healthy artistic streak.

“I made a commitment not to be bored as an adult,” Drucker said.