Letter to the Editor:
Visual arts at Rider

I was excited to see the newest Rider Alumni Magazine, “Celebrating the Arts,” as I expected to read about the many recent accomplishments of Rider’s artists. Instead, I was shocked to see that not one article mentioned the visual arts component of Rider’s fine arts program. There were articles about the dance program, Westminster Choir College, and the theater program — complete with a list of all of the year’s theater performances. I was flabbergasted: How can you have a magazine dedicated to the arts and not mention studio art? There are 29 students majoring in the visual arts — why haven’t they been represented equally? Fine Arts students have acquired a range of accolades, awards and recognition. In fact, the student on the cover won the first Rider research grant given to the visual arts department, an honor awarded for a painting project. I know because that student is me.

Rider shows little support of either the faculty or students of the visual arts program. We have two well-known, professional artists teaching here. Deborah Rosenthal, a tenured professor, has had seven solo exhibitions at the Bowery Gallery in New York and has been a guest artist, instructor and critic at Stanford University, Parsons, the Chautauqua School of Art and the Kansas City Art Institute — just to mention a few. This fall, Dr. Rosenthal appeared on a panel at the National Academy of Design with one of America’s greatest poets, John Ashbery.

Professor Harry Naar has taught both studio art and art history at Rider for more than 25 years. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the country, and he was selected as one of the six New Jersey Print and Paper Fellows at the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper. In addition, marvelous guest artists come to our campus, both for gallery displays and to offer their assistance to the art classes.

In terms of facilities for the artists at Rider, there are two art studios, one for each of the art professors. These rooms are small and cramped. We just completed construction of a beautiful new gym for our athletic department, yet art facilities, which cater to both academic and extracurricular interests, receive little funding and no renovation or new construction. Rider’s fine arts students work in two small rooms that barely fit 12 easels and very little funding exists for trips to museums and art galleries.

We should be known for all of our academic programs, though there is lack of attention paid to certain disciplines. A liberal arts education encompasses all of these facets of life. Does Rider?

— Kristy Kleinfelder
Senior, Fine Arts Major