VCU news

By Leila Ugincius

Reni Gower, professor in the Department of Painting and Printmaking in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, has been named recipient of the College Art Association’s 2014 Distinguished Teacher of Art Award.

“This is arguably the most prestigious college educator's award in the country,” said Joseph H. Seipel, dean of the School of the Arts. “This is an amazingly important honor and so well deserved.”

Gower has more than 30 years of professional experience in the fine arts. Her work has been showcased extensively nationally and internationally and is represented in various collections, including the Library of Congress Print Collection, Pleasant Co. / Mattel Inc., Capital One and the American embassies in Lima, Peru, and Osaka, Japan.

Gower has received numerous grants and awards, including an NEA / SECCA Southeastern Artist Fellowship; Virginia Commission for the Arts Project Grants; SECAC Awards of Excellence in Teaching and Outstanding Catalogs of Contemporary Materials; VCU School of the Arts Award of Excellence for Research, Teaching, and Service; VCU School of the Arts Faculty Grants for Curatorial Projects; and two Ford Foundation Grants awarded through Syracuse University.

“I am greatly honored and humbled to receive this significant recognition of all my years teaching in the painting and printmaking department and VCUarts,” Gower said.

The Distinguished Teaching of Art Award, established in 1972, is presented to an individual who has been actively engaged in teaching art for most of his or her career and who has developed a philosophy or technique of instruction based on his or her experience as an artist, among other criteria.

Gower will receive the award Feb. 12 at the CAA’s annual conference in Chicago.