Hartford Art School Alumni Forum: 'Not Starving Artists'

Mark Dion '86

Ellen Hackl Fagan '05

Carole P. Kunstadt '73

Nancy Bergman Pantirer '77

The Hartford Art School will host the second in a series of alumni forums on Friday, March 1, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Wilde Auditorium, with the over-arching theme “Challenging the Myth of the Starving Artist,” to explore the various ways in which alumni have used their training and skills to make their way in the world and achieve success.

The panelists will discuss their careers and how their start at the Hartford Art School led them to success in fine arts. A reception will follow, offering current students and others an opportunity for further discussion with the speakers. The forum is free and open to the public.

Alumni taking part in the forum are:

Mark Dion BFA ’86, co-director of Mildred’s Land, an innovative visual art education and residency program in Pennsylvania. He is currently is working on the visual art programming and redesign of the Seattle Waterfront. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the ninth annual Larry Aldrich Foundation Award and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Lucida Art Award. Dion has had major exhibitions at the Miami Art Museum, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Connecticut, Tate Gallery in London, and the British Museum of Natural History in London.

Ellen Hackl Fagan MFA ’05, an interdisciplinary abstract painter who uses synaesthesia, digital media, and interactive performance as tools for developing a corresponding language between color and sound in her work. Since graduating, she has had 12 solo exhibition and more than 20 group exhibitions nationally.

Carole P. Kunstadt BFA ’73, co-founder of Kennedy/Kunstadt Tapestries, which was commissioned by Gloria Ross to weave a tapestry after the Helen Frankenthaler painting, This Day. She has recently been exhibited in the first International Santorini Biennale of Arts in Greece and has also participated in numerous group exhibitions throughout the United States.

Nancy Bergman Pantirer BFA '77, has maintained a studio in Tribeca, New York, for the last 20 years and has evolved as an artist who is most at home doing large-scale, site-specific installations. Recently her works have been commissioned for corporate and public spaces, including The Continental in New York, The Metrotop in Woodbridge, New Jersey, and The Robert Treat Hotel in Newark. For the last 10 years, she has been producing and curating salons, allowing her to work with a variety of visual and performing artists, writers, and musicians.

The forum will be moderated by Janice La Motta BFA '78, currently the artistic director at Charter Oak Cultural Center, a multicultural, nonprofit arts organization in Hartford, who has more than 30 years of professional experience in the fine arts field in both commercial and nonprofit sectors.

See complete biographies and forum details.