Barbara Kestenbaum grew up in Brooklyn. She attended the High School of Fashion Industries and continued her education at Fashion Institute of Technology. Ms. Kestenbaum worked 22 years in the Department of Education and retired as a placement officer for Hard of Hearing/Visually Impaired Students in Manhattan.

She feels strongly that no person should worry about a decent place to live or about medical care or whether they will have enough to eat.

Her desire for justice to come to all people has impelled her activity in a NYC municipal union since 1984, where she has served as shop steward and delegate. She has taken part in many union activities in behalf of economic justice.

Ms. Kestenbaum has a married son who is a union official.

She is vice-president of her tenant association, served in a community garden, and took part in organizing outings for neighborhood children.

Ms. Kestenbaum has written letters and articles that have been published in newspapers around the country about what she has learned from Aesthetic Realism on subjects including the economy, homelessness, and young people.  

Ms. Kestenbaum is an Aesthetic Realism Consultant and has participated in pubic seminars presented at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, including:

“What Kind of Importance Do We Want?”
“Women: Energetic and Weary”
“How Should A Woman See Her Past?”

In the last years she has had a great interest in art and has been painting.   She studies drawing in the class The Art of Drawing: Surface and Depth, taught by printmaker Chaim Koppelman and she takes the Critical Inquiry class taught by painter Dorothy Koppelman. Both classes are taught at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation.