CHESTER, CT, July 02, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Frederick S. Osborne with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Mr. Osborne celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
An artist and President Emeritus of the Lyme Academy College of Fine Art in Old Lyme, CT, Osborne holds an MFA from Yale University and a BFA (with honors) from the Tyler School of Fine Arts of Temple University.
He entered post-secondary education in 1966 as head of the undergraduate Sculpture Department at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Several years later, as part of a departmental re-organization he was appointed a Studio Critic in Penn's Graduate School of Fine Arts. During the eleven years he taught at Penn, he was twice nominated for a Lindbach Distinguished Teaching Award.
In 1977, Osborne joined the Philadelphia College of Art (PCA, now The University of the Arts), as an instructor in Art Education in the Teacher Certification Program. A year later, he was appointed to the faculty of the Graduate Program in Art Education, for which he subsequently conducted the Graduate Thesis Seminar and served as a Thesis Advisor for Masters candidates.
At that same time, PCA had made an institutional priority to strengthen and expand its Continuing Education (part-time study) program. The Dean initiated this undertaking and appointed Osborne to direct the program. Over the next eight years, the department's enrollment nearly quadrupled and it re-instituted four associate degree programs. Osborne continued his academic responsibilities in the Graduate Program during these years.
In 1985, he was appointed Dean of the School of the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia (PAFA) – the oldest art school and museum in this country. Early in this period he conceived, wrote the curriculum and recruited the faculty for a freestanding MFA Program, which he established in 1989. It was PAFA's first accredited academic degree. Since that time, the MFA program has grown and now is a major component of the enrollment and the tuition revenue.
He also oversaw the retrofit design and construction of a new studio facility for the School, and co-directed a capital campaign, establishing the Academy's first unrestricted scholarship endowment fund, in the late 80's.
Before leaving PAFA, he served as its Vice-President for External and Alumni Affairs for three years, during which he established the first official institutional alumni association and stewarded a twelve million-dollar bequest, the largest gift the Academy had received at that time.
In 2002, he was appointed President of the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts located in Old Lyme, Connecticut. During his presidency, the College completed its transition from a regional studio art center to an accredited college. Building on this achievement, Osborne instituted a new major in Illustration. This was added to the original majors of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture. He instituted the Academy granting honorary degrees. Among those initially awarded were artists, Sydney Goodman, Will Barnet, and Mercedes Matter. He retired in 2007 as President Emeritus.
In the late nineties Osborne was asked by the Violette DeMazia Trust, which funds the Education Program of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia to update and renew the Foundation's two-year education program. Osborne was a graduate of the program in the early 60's. The Barnes Foundation houses a collection, best known for its world-class post-impressionist works, which Barnes assembled to be the visual resource to support and illustrate its educational program. The Barnes educational program is distinguished by its adherence to the study of works of art from an objective, scientific point of view; its study of the principles of aesthetics and the creative process; and its acknowledgement of the meaningful ties, which exist between our day-to-day lives, creativity and the visual arts.
As an independent scholar, Osborne drafted a twenty-part lecture and seminar series drawn from the published writings of Dr. Barnes, his lifelong assistant Violette deMazia and John Dewey, the educator, whom Barnes hired as the Foundation's first Director of Education. In 1999, Osborne added the second year, which examines the major western art traditions. Each participant was required to author and present, a mini-lecture for their peers. The two instructional curricula, which are now college accredited, evolved from a traditional lecture format to a seminar (Socratic dialogue) format.
During his academic career in Philadelphia, Osborne co-founded the Vermont Studio Center (VSC) in 1984, an idealistic rural residency for artists and writers in Johnson, VT. He was the Center's Co-Director from 1984-1989 and still serves on its Board. The founders envisioned VSC as a community dedicated to encouraging creativity in its purest form and specifically avoiding the competitive aspects of the academic and commercial worlds. It is now international in scope and the largest residency for artists and writers in this country. Osborne served as Board Chairman from 2010 to 2014 during which the administration transitioned from a start-up mode to an institutional mode.
Osborne has served on many boards; notable amongst these were twenty-two years as a member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, the national accrediting organization for post-secondary visual arts programs. He was an official evaluator, 1987-2005, for NASAD and served on its Board of Directors. He was a member of the National Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design, which he was involved in reforming in 1991. He served as Secretary for AICAD from 2005 until 2007.
He has served as an advisor to the Institute of Doctoral Studies in Visual Arts in Portland, ME since 2006; and was an advisor to the Fine Arts Committee of the Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia for its 1% for Public Art Program for more than ten years in the late 80's and nineties.
Throughout his time in academia, Osborne has maintained a studio practice, exhibited in group shows, and continued to teach. He conducted the first several years of the Graduate Seminar in the fledgling MFA program at PAFA, and served as a studio critic for advanced students at the Pennsylvania Academy and then the Lyme Academy.
He speaks of his own creative process as being akin to musical improvisation, being partly moved by chance, and by what is present at the time an idea occurs to him. Formally, his interest lies in the particular qualities of space and silence and their centrality to any expressive work.
His sculptures range from traditionally figurative motifs, to some described with light and sound, to those, which consist of constructed abstract lines. At present, influenced by Asian "scholars' rocks," he is using dried kelp stems as the basis for contemplative spatial compositions made with modeling wax, some of which are cast in bronze.
His concerns as an artist pervade his life and are nurtured by a deep involvement with the spiritual realm. Art addresses the essence of life for Osborne, so he is interested in those aspects of existence that are universal.
He has been married to Judith K. M. Barbour, an artist, for over thirty years and has three children from a previous marriage.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Frederick S. Osborne has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
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