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37th Rosen Sculpture Walk with the Juror
July 15, 2023 | 10:00 am
photo: Andrew Light, Divergent, 36th Rosen Sculpture Competition First Place Award Winner
The Rosen Sculpture Competition and Exhibition is an annual national juried competition presented by the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival. The nationally recognized program has showcased contemporary American sculpture in outdoor settings across the university campus for the last 36 years.
To celebrate the competition’s 37th anniversary, join competition juror and sculptor Jennifer Hecker on a fascinating outdoor tour of the 10 sculptures selected as finalists for this year’s competition. Hecker’s extensive and diverse exhibition record includes solo exhibits, commissions, collaborative installations, public art projects, outdoor sculpture displays, adjudicated exhibitions, and permanent collections. The July 15th walking tour concludes at the Schaefer Center with an announcement of the award winners and an awards reception, including a complimentary boxed lunch.
This program is made possible by the generous support of the Martin and Doris Rosen Giving Fund/Debbie Rosen Davidson and David Rosen and the Charles and Nancy Rosenblatt Foundation.
LOCATION: Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts. (participants will gather outdoors, at the reception tent adjacent to the center).
DATE/TIME: Saturday, July 15 from 10am-Noon.
Event concludes with an awards reception and a complimentary boxed lunch.
COST: Event is FREE
ACCOMMODATION STATEMENT: Appalachian is committed to providing an inclusive experience for individuals with disabilities. If accommodations are needed in order to fully participate on the basis of a disability, contact the Office of Disability Resources (828.262.3056). It is recommended that accommodation requests be made two weeks prior to the event.
(pictured above) Arts lovers gather for the 35th Rosen Sculpture Walk with juror Rachel Stevens as she presents the second place sculpture: Steampunk Babylon by Charles Pilkey.
The Rosen Sculpture Walk will take place rain or shine. In the event of heavy rain, a presentation by the juror, including images of the sculptures, will be held indoors at the Schaefer Center.
For more information about the sculptures and sculptors in this year’s competition, visit the Rosen Sculpture Competition Exhibition website.
ABOUT THE JUROR — JENNIFER HECKER
Jennifer Hecker has an extensive and diverse exhibition record that includes solo exhibits, commissions, collaborative installations, public art projects, outdoor sculpture displays, adjudicated exhibitions, and permanent collections. Jennifer recently (2022) completed a month-long residency at the Triangle L Art Ranch in Oracle, Arizona where she had a solo exhibition and collaborated with the Triangle L director, Sharon Holnback, on “Rain Dreamscape” — a site-specific, large scale, outdoor installation for permanent display in the sculpture park. Jennifer’s work has won awards in several recent exhibitions, including: 1st Place in the nationally adjudicated “Momentum” exhibition in Toledo, Ohio (2017); 2nd Place award in the nationally adjudicated “Hot Glass” exhibition in Cumberland, Maryland (2017); CITY Newspaper’s “Critic’s Pick Award” in the Rochester Contemporary Members’ Exhibition (2016); and 1st Place in the adjudicated, regional sculpture exhibition “After the Pedestal” at The Sculpture Center in Cleveland, Ohio (2015). In 2016, a solo exhibition of her mixed media sculptures was exhibited in the Main Gallery of the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts in Boone, NC. Just 15 months later, Jennifer had a solo exhibition in the Roz Steiner Gallery at Genesee Community College in Batavia, NY with 11 new sculptures. Her work has been included in thematic exhibitions on water at: AnnMarie Sculpture Garden and Art Center in Solomons, MD; Allegheny College in Meadville, PA; the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, NY; and the State Street Gallery in Chicago, IL. In 2013, Jennifer was one of 42 regional artists invited to create a new work inspired by an artwork in the permanent collection of the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY in celebration of its centennial. In 2011, Jennifer was one of 30 artists from around the world to be featured in the book Sculpture and Design with Recycled Glass by Cindy Ann Coldiron (Schiffer Publishing). In 2006, her commissioned outdoor sculpture for the Village of Brockport, Les Racines et les Raisons (The Roots and the Reasons) was dedicated in Remembrance Park. In 2004, she completed a significant commission for a three-part, site-specific sculpture for Christ Church in Pittsford, New York.
Jennifer has been the recipient of awards from the Jerome Foundation, the Arts and Cultural Council of Greater Rochester, the United University Professions and SUNY College at Brockport. Her work is included in the permanent collections of ProMedica Corporate Headquarters in Toledo, OH; The Red Cross in Rochester, NY; The Children’s Inn at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, MD, and SUNY College at Brockport, as well as private collections in New York, North Carolina, Arizona, Colorado, Virginia, Kansas, Ohio, Illinois, Florida, Michigan, and Minnesota.
Jennifer is a professor in the Department of Art at SUNY College at Brockport, where she has taught all levels of sculpture as well as general education art courses since 1989. In 1999, she was awarded a Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2002 she completed a 6-year term as department chairperson.
A Special Thanks to the Rosen Family
Martin & Doris Rosen
Vision, generosity, and a pursuit of excellence are some of the many qualities that characterized the lives of Martin and Doris Rosen. From their years devoted to building a successful business, to their lives after retirement, revolving around family, philanthropy, and a commitment to the arts, this exceptional couple left an indelible mark on the communities in which they lived and worked.
Thanks to the continuing generosity of the Rosen Family, Martin and Doris’s legacy of support for quality visual arts programming has been continued by their children, and enables this beloved exhibition program to continue to develop and flourish. In July 1997, the Rosens donated Hephaestus, a large commissioned sculpture by Bruce White, to Appalachian State’s Permanent Collection, and it adorns the Rivers Street frontage area of the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts to this day.
On the occasion of the Rosens’ 50th wedding anniversary in October 1999, their children established the Martin and Doris Rosen Scholarship to assist rising junior or senior art majors at Appalachian State. Tireless supporters of the arts, the Rosen Family has given so much of themselves over the years to ensure that the arts remain a strong foundation of campus and community life in the High Country. We wish to extend to them our deepest appreciation.
