Printmaker and educator Jim Hibbard was born in 1936. Little is found on his education or early career. He was awarded purchase prizes from the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington in Seattle, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany foundation in the 1960s. In 1967, he began a lengthy teaching career in the printmaking department at Portland State University (PSU), and would soon become a prominent member of the Portland arts scene.

In 1979 he cofounded the cooperative Blackfish Gallery in Portland, and in 1980 was instrumental in establishing the Northwest Print Council (now Print Arts Northwest). He retired from PSU in 1991 but continued to teach as Professor Emeritus while also operating his own press, Pyramid Press. In the mid 1990s he moved with his wife, artist Jenny Hibbard, to Guanajuato, Mexico, reestablishing the press as Pirimidal Grafica, a print studio and bookmaking workshop, with artist and former student Hugo Anaya. The Hibbards remained there for twenty-five years, exhibiting and teaching printmaking workshops. Hibbard died in 2022.

His work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (IL), the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, and the Portland Art Museum (OR). In 2023, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art held a retrospective of his Mexico work, titled "Jim Hibbard: Back in View," at the Study Gallery and Print Study Center.