40th Anniversary Monmouth Festival of the Arts
APRIL 17-21, 2010

2010 Juror Bio

Thea Clark Thea Clark has taught jewelry making since 1999 at the Newark Museum and at the New Jersey Center of Visual Arts, Summit, NJ. She has participated in juried craft shows such as the Westchester Craft Show, Sausalito and Coconut Grove Art Festivals. Also, she has sold her work to galleries around the country through American Craft Council and Buyer's Market of America shows. Exhibitions include national and regional juried shows in such venues as the Noyes Museum and the New Jersey State Museum. She has won several awards including, first place for jewelry at the Sausalito Art Festival, and the Gold Award in the California Discovery Arts Award competition. Her work has been published in Art Jewelry magazine and next fall her project will be featured in the Lark Book publication "30 Minute Earrings". She is the founder of the New Jersey Metal Arts Guild.

Frank Hyder has participated in more than 150 group shows and has had over 80 solo exhibitions throughout North, South and Central America. His solo museum exhibitions include the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art's Museum of American Art, the Carnegie Museum in California, La Salle Museum of Art in Philadelphia. His solo exhibits in Venezuela include the Musco de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas Sofia Imber and Museo Jacobo Borges. Major awards include a Senior Fulbright Research Grant to Venezuela, U.S. Embassy Cultural Grants, Mid-Atlantic NEA, two Pennsylvania State Council of the Arts Grants and an International Art Programming Network Partners Grant (Bolivia, Peru, Turkey). Public commissions include the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program "Hanging garden of I-95" wall mural; Terminal Freezer, Oxnard, CA, ceramic wall mural; and the Museo Jacobo Borges "Bridge of Life" ceramic walkway in Caracas, Venezuela. His work is in the collection of many museums including the Library of Congress as well as corporate and private collectors.

Dot Paolo is the owner and director of Rabbet Gallery Inc in New Brunswick, NJ since 1984. She also teaches at Raritan Valley Community College in Somerset, NJ and at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. Primarily a photographer and printmaker, Dot exhibits her artwork in the tri-state area. Her work is included in many of our state museums, corporate and private collections. She received her BFA from the University of Bridgeport, CT, and a MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.

Stuart Topper was a professor and held several positions in the Fine Arts Department at Kean University in New Jersey. His work has been exhibited throughout New Jersey including the National Juried Exhibition with the Nabisco Gallery. He received his B.A. in Fine Arts from Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, and a MFA in sculpture from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. He has been awarded the Dodge Foundation Fellowship for artist/teacher at the Vermont Studio Center and the Steven Heater Scholarship in woodworking and furniture making in Snowmass, Co. He has collaborated on several publications in his field and has been featured in several newspapers including the New York Times and the Star Ledger.