New Exhibit in Rochester to Feature Creativity of Art Educators

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Luvon Sheppard’s Angel on the Street will be featured in the Artist Teacher Invitational. Sheppard is a full professor in the School of Art and an alumni member of the first class in 1969. He has received numerous awards for his artwork and teaching.

Art teachers are primarily educators by trade—but they are artists by nature. A new exhibit at Rochester Institute of Technology’s Gallery r will paint a vignette of the creativity to come from art teachers who are RIT alumni.

The Artist Teacher Invitational will run from May 24 to June 1 at Gallery r in Rochester and will feature artwork by alumni from the art education graduate program in the School of Art at RIT. The exhibition will showcase a select group of art educators who have influenced students in New York from 1969 to 2011.

“As active exhibiting artists and experienced educators, these accomplished artists provide our community with outstanding leadership in the visual arts,” says Carole Woodlock, chair of the School of Art. “We are thrilled to have alumni exhibiting with us who graduated from the very first class in 1969 to the most recent class in 2011. Many of the artist teachers featured in this show have received outstanding awards for teaching and creating innovative visual art.”

The exhibit will kick off with an artist reception from 6 to 9 p.m. May 24. The exhibit will also be featured during Gallery r’s First Friday Open House from 7 to 10 p.m. June 1.

Gallery r sits adjacent to Lumiere Photo, home to Spectrum Gallery, and is just a few yards from the Memorial Art Gallery and Village Gate. The gallery space is under the helm of RIT’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences and offers students the same challenges and expectations that confront established artists—focusing on diverse exhibitions, educational opportunities and collaborations with the public, other arts institutions and community groups.

Gallery r is handicap accessible, features easy street and off-street parking, and is open from 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. All exhibits are free and open to the public. For more information, call Zerbe Sodervick at 585-475-4977.