The Rosen Sculpture Competition and Exhibition is an annual national juried competition presented by the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival. The nationally recognized program has showcased contemporary American sculpture in outdoor settings across the university campus for the last 37 years.
In honor of the competition’s 38th anniversary, we invite you to join sculptor Christopher Meyer, our competition juror, for an engaging outdoor tour of the ten sculptures chosen as finalists for this year’s event. With a rich background in iron work, Meyer’s work ranges from non-objective to representational sculptural objects, sculptural installations, and cast-iron performance work, often focusing on the interaction between the viewer and the work. The walking tour on July 13th will culminate at the Schaefer Center, where the award winners will be announced during an awards reception, featuring a complimentary boxed lunch.
This program is made possible by generous support from The Martin and Doris Rosen Giving Fund — courtesy of Debbie Rosen Davidson and David Rosen — and The Charles and Nancy Rosenblatt Foundation.
About the Juror
Christoper Meyer is a native South Dakotan and Associate Professor of Sculpture at the University of South Dakota, where he received his B.F.A. visual art in sculpture. Meyer earned his M.F.A. emphasizing in sculpture from the University of Montana in Missoula, MT. Meyer’s work ranges from non-objective to representational sculptural objects, sculptural installations, and cast-iron performance work, often focusing on the interaction between the viewer and the work. The work may evoke a tool or a toy but without a stated purpose, or it may simply imply a raw emotional state; his objective is to create work that is humanist in nature. Christopher’s studio practice tends to emphasize material and process and is made from a large variety of materials including cast metals, carved or fabricated wood and steel, fibers, mixed media, or “whatever the piece needs to be.”
Since 2012, Meyer has made a deeper investment in cast iron, building a furnace and equipment necessary to make iron, bringing cast iron to the University of South Dakota, and hosting an annual iron pour event at his home studio in rural South Dakota called the “Little Pour on the Prairie” each spring. He annually travels thousands of miles to cast iron. Meyer currently serves on the board of the Western Cast Iron Art Alliance and in October 2022 he hosted the 7th Biennial Western Cast Iron Art Conference. Meyer’s work has been published in several visual art publications regionally to internationally and he has exhibited in over 100 regional and national exhibitions since joining the University of South Dakota in 2006. He has also been awarded the Belbas-Larson Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest award given to faculty at the University of South Dakota, as well as the Knutson Distinguished Professor Award for Creative Research, the highest award given in the University of South Dakota’s College of Fine Arts.
A Special Thanks to the Rosen Family
Martin & Doris Rosen
Vision, generosity, and a pursuit of excellence are some of the many qualities that characterized the lives of Martin and Doris Rosen. From their years devoted to building a successful business, to their lives after retirement, revolving around family, philanthropy, and a commitment to the arts, this exceptional couple left an indelible mark on the communities in which they lived and worked.
Thanks to the continuing generosity of the Rosen Family, Martin and Doris’s legacy of support for quality visual arts programming has been continued by their children, and enables this beloved exhibition program to continue to develop and flourish. In July 1997, the Rosens donated Hephaestus, a large commissioned sculpture by Bruce White, to Appalachian State’s Permanent Collection, and it adorns the Rivers Street frontage area of the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts to this day.
On the occasion of the Rosens’ 50th wedding anniversary in October 1999, their children established the Martin and Doris Rosen Scholarship to assist rising junior or senior art majors at Appalachian State. Tireless supporters of the arts, the Rosen Family has given so much of themselves over the years to ensure that the arts remain a strong foundation of campus and community life in the High Country. We wish to extend to them our deepest appreciation.
