2024 Judge for the Stevens Point Festival of the Arts

Dick Schneider, well known in central Wisconsin for his ceramic artistry, became a significant contributor to the event by supporting the planners and participating as a potter for many years. His creative talent is legendary at UWSP;among many other achievements, he designed and supervised the execution of the "E Pluribus Unum" mosaic mural on the exterior wall of the Natural Resources building on the UWSP campus.  His devotion to his craft and mentoring younger artist resulted in nationally recognized pottery artists, Rich Foris and Tim Marcotte, both in the Stevens Point area.

Schneider retired from UWSP in 1988 but continued working as a studio potter,showing and selling locally as well as at his summer retreat, the Schneider's Pottery Shop near Minocqua.  It was a great loss to the community when he passed away on April 25, 2014.

John Morser was an extremely talented and respected photographer, an educator, and longtime FoA council member. 

He was born and raised in Milwaukee. When he was about 14, John and a friend developed their first roll of color reversal film. He was intrigued. In the early 1970’s that same childhood friend showed John his new Olympus 35 mm cameras and an old fascination rekindled. 

His artist career included work for the Wisconsin Humanities Committee, documentary photography, larger cameras, art festivals, gallery exhibits and eventually a commercial studio. In 2002 retired from teaching at UWSP and discovered digital imaging.

John Morser's artist statement. "My images are designed to call attention to something in the visual world that I consider important. That something may be patterns, shapes, tonalities or social-historical happenings and contestations. Although some of my work is planned, arranged and constructed in the studio, the bulk of it is not, and the reasons I create a particular image are often not very clear to me. I like to think I see image possibilities as good jazz men hear musical possibilities. I make images because I simply love doing it."

Brenda was a long time council member of FoA. She graduated with a BA in Art with an endorsement in secondary art education, then taught junior high and adult classes in jewelry design as she pursued her own career in art metals. 

She started participating in juried art fairs in 1982 and did as many as 18 shows a season. In the late 90s, she owned and operated The Art Connection; a small fine art/craft gallery in downtown Stevens Point. Brenda spent one year as interim curator of the Edna Carlston Art Gallery before she was hired as director of the Riverfront Arts Center in 1999. In 2011, she retired to pursue her jewelry design career. 

Brenda Gingles passed away in 2019 after a brief and courageous battle with cancer. She was an integral part of the FoA, The Rising Star Mill, Hidden Studios Art Tour, and the Riverfront Arts Center. Not only was she a talented and driven artist but she was a designer, an educator, a mother, a mentor, a gardener, a fashionista, and a great friend. 

Brenda’s Artist Statement: The simple, flowing and elegant jewelry designs are inspired by my love of flowers and other nature forms. I am also intrigued by the creation of positive/negative spaces and tension in the pierced and folded angular forms. The contrast of matte versus polished finishes enhances and further defines these forms in my contemporary yet classic jewelry pieces.