Date: Aug 12, 2009

Professor of Fine Arts Laurie Fendrich Awarded a Brown Foundation Fellowship for Drawing

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY … Hofstra University Professor of Fine Arts Laurie Fendrich spent five weeks in April and May 2009 as a Brown Foundation Fellow, which allowed her to travel to France to live and work in the historic Dora Maar House in Ménerbes, a small village located in the Luberon mountains.

The fellowship program, coordinated by the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Texas, provides writers, artists and others in the arts and humanities with an opportunity to step away from their daily obligations to concentrate on their fields of expertise.

A friend of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, purchased the former residence of Dora Maar in 1997. The home had originally been Picasso’s gift to Dora Maar, who lived and worked in it for 50 years. The new owner renovated and updated the spacious 18th-century, four-story stone residence. The goal was to make the home a retreat for scholars, artists, or writers, where they could work undisturbed on their research, art, or writing for one to three months.

Under the auspices of the fellowship, Professor Fendrich was given a studio in the Dora Maar House where she lived with two other fellowship recipients. The retreat allowed her to complete a portfolio of drawings that will be featured in a solo exhibition at the Gary Snyder Project Space in New York City, opening November 5, 2009.

Since her return to New York this summer, Professor Fendrich has been working on her retrospective, scheduled to open in the fall of 2010 at the Williamson Art Gallery at Scripps College, in Claremont, California. The exhibition will include 30 paintings and 30 drawings going back to 1992, and will be accompanied by a full-color catalog with an essay by Mark Stevens.

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students can choose from about 150 undergraduate and more than 160 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business; engineering; communication; education, health and human services; and honors studies, as well as a School of Law. With a student-faculty ratio of 14-to-1, our professors teach small classes averaging 22 students that emphasize interaction, critical thinking and analysis. Hofstra offers a faculty whose highest priority is teaching excellence. The University also provides excellent facilities with state-of-the-art technology, extensive library resources and internship programs that match students’ interests and abilities with appropriate companies and organizations.  The Hofstra community is driven, dynamic and energetic, helping students find and focus their strengths to prepare them for a successful future.
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