HCC professor to receive national art educators award

Holyoke Community College Professor Dean Nimmer was named this year's recipient of the Distinguished Teacher of Art Award by the College Art Association.

Nimmer, who teaches art and is author of "Art from Intuition: Overcoming Your Fears and Obstacles to Making Art," will receive the award at a special ceremony at the CAA convention in Chicago in February. The award is given to an artist-educator for his or her life's work in demonstrating that the teaching and practice of art are often inseparable.

The jury who chose Nimmer said the honoree had shown that he had excelled in both fields over his career, and that he served as a role model and inspiration for young artists and teachers alike.

"This honor comes as quite a wonderful surprise since CAA is the largest arts organization in the US, with almost 15,000 members, and their jury selects only one individual from all colleges across the country to receive this prestigious award," Nimmer said.

Nimmer said, in light of past award recipients who had achieved acclaim in the field of art, he felt proud and humbled to be named this year's honoree.

Past recipients have included other great artists such as Josef Albers, Tony Smith, Philip Guston, Jack Tworkov, Grace Hartigan, Lester Van Winkle, Wayne Thiebaud, Mercedes Matter, Robert Blackburn, Margaret Lovejoy and Hans Haacke.

Nimmer was nominated by Frank Cressotti, chairman of the HCC Fine Arts department. Nimmer thanked Cressotti for "believing in me as a teacher and artist."

Nimmer, also a teacher at the Curtis Blake Day School for special needs students in grades 2 to 8, draws on 38 years as a skilled art educator. He has begun work on his second book, "Making Abstract Art."

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