Denison University will host sculptor Ron Fondaw as the first Vail Visiting Artist in the art department for the 2003/2004 school year during the week of Oct. 6-10. He also will give a public lecture on his artwork at 7 p.m., Wednesday (Oct. 8) in room 104 of the Cleveland Hall Annex. Admission is free and open to the public.

Fondaw specializes in large-scale ceramic pieces. To showcase this talent, he will produce an adobe structure with the assistance of the Denison community as part of his visit, along with participating in a variety of classes.

He earned his bachelor of fine arts degree from Memphis College of Art and his master of fine arts degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana. Fondaw has served on the faculty of Washington University, the University of North Carolina -- Chapel Hill, the University of Miami and Ohio University. In 2001 he was a member of a design team of HNTB Architecture & Engineers to redesign 8th Street in Columbia, Mo. Over the years, Fondaw has been the recipient of the Kranzberg Award, the Pollack-Krasner Award, a Fulbright Fellowship, a National Endowment Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Sculpture.

Since 1983, Fondaw has had numerous exhibitions of his sculptures around the world, including the Smithsonian in Washington, the High Museum in Atlanta, the Missouri Historical Museum in St. Louis, the Anita Shapolski Gallery in New York City, and both the Ceramic Museum of Taipei Cultural Center and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taiwan. Fondaw also has created installations including "The Giving Tree," at the St. Louis Art Museum, and "3 Miles High," a ceramic tile piece, commissioned by Broward County, Fla. His sculptures are included in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute, The Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Fine Art and at the corporate offices of American Express in Jacksonville, Fla., IBM Corporation Communications Center in Raleigh, N.C., Sun Bank in Orlando, Fla., and TIAA-CREF in St. Louis.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

For press inquiries:

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Barbara Stambaugh

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(740) 587-8575