Arts Council recognizes OWU prof

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Ohio Wesleyan University faculty member Frank Hobbs has earned an “Individual Excellence Award” and $5,000 grant from the Ohio Arts Council for a portfolio of paintings that reflect his interpretation of the contemporary landscape.

Hobbs, an OWU associate professor of fine arts, said the award-winning artworks “reflect my long-standing fascinations with the contemporary landscape, particularly the ways that humans imprint their values, ideals and desires on the natural environment.”

According to the Ohio Arts Council, award winners are selected following a “competitive application process focusing solely on evidence and merit of past artistic work and an open panel review conducted by nationally recognized professionals [designed] to ensure that only the most exceptional individuals receive funding.”

Hobbs said he is honored by the award and impressed by the work of the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency created in 1965 to “foster and encourage the development of the arts and assist the preservation of Ohio’s cultural heritage.”

“For me, receiving the Individual Excellence in the Arts Award is a much-appreciated recognition of my work by an impartial and highly qualified jury of peers,” he said. “Also, being a relative newcomer to Ohio, such recognition in a new region is particularly rewarding. In the years in which I’ve lived and worked in Ohio, it’s been very gratifying to see all of the ways that the Ohio Arts Council promotes a strong culture of art and creativity.”

Hobbs, who joined the Ohio Wesleyan faculty in 2007, teaches painting, drawing, figure drawing and 2D design. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and his master’s degree from American University in Washington, D.C.

In addition to the Ohio Arts Council award, Hobbs has received fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. His work is in corporate and private collections around the world and has been shown in the American Embassies of Ankara, Turkey; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; and Bermuda.

Staff Report

Information for this story was provided by Ohio Wesleyan University.

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