Heipp named director of School of Art + Art History

January 25, 2012

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — With more than 30 years of service to the University of Florida, professor Richard Heipp has been appointed director of UF’s School of Art + Art History.

The appointment will begin July 1. For the past 15 months, Heipp has served as interim director of the program. The professor of painting was selected to lead the school’s faculty and programs in art education, art history, ceramics, creative photography, digital media, drawing, graphic design, museum studies, painting, printmaking, sculpture and visual arts studies.

The College of Fine Arts’ School of Art + Art History is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and contributor to the College of Fine Arts’ mission of serving as an educational, professional and cultural resource in the visual arts for the campus, community, state and region. The school has more than 30 full-time faculty, approximately 400 undergraduate students and more than 200 graduate students.

“Richard has been instrumental in leading the school’s faculty in forward-looking curriculum development and facilities usage,” College of Fine Arts Dean Lucinda Lavelli said. “He has helped the school establish important interdisciplinary programs and relationships, bridging UF’s research mission with the learning objectives of fine arts programs in the Gator Nation. He has been, and continues to be, a mentor to many emerging and professional artists. Our alumni, faculty, and current students join the college in celebrating this announcement and anticipate continued achievements for the school under his leadership.”

Heipp received his MFA from the University of Washington, and his BFA degree from Cleveland Institute of Art. He is a painter who has also created large-scale installations and site-specific public art projects that synthesize digital and analogue processes. Heipp has had more than 25 solo exhibitions and his work has been featured in more than 100 group exhibitions. His paintings and installations are included in numerous public and private collections nationally including the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, the Harn Museum of Art, the Progressive Companies, Miami University and the City of Seattle.

Heipp has been awarded commissions for eighteen major site-specific art in public places projects through national competition or direct invitation. Heipp has received four State of Florida, Individual Artist Fellowships, a Southern Arts Federation/National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in painting, and was honored by the Southeastern College Arts Association, receiving the Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award for 2006.

In addition, Heipp was awarded a Research Foundation Professorship by the University of Florida in 1999, and was honored as the 2008-2009 Teacher of the Year at the University of Florida College of Fine Arts.