Sculptor Dorothy Riester to Receive Distinguished Service Award

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Dorothy Riester, Copyright 2011 by Marianne Smith Dalton

CAZENOVIA, NY (05/03/2012)(readMedia)-- Cazenovia College's 2012 Distinguished Service Award recognizes nationally known sculptor, Dorothy Winner Riester, who has shared her love of art, passion for preservation, and commitment to the environment with the greater community for over a half century.

The Distinguished Service Award, established by the Cazenovia College Board of Trustees in 2007, is given annually at Commencement to recognize individuals who have 'given back,' and in so doing, have improved the quality of life for others. This year, on Saturday, May 12, the award will be presented to Dorothy by the Chair of the Board of Trustees, Bradford G. Wheler.

Dorothy began her career as an artist at age five, when a drawing assignment she did in school was pronounced the best of all the drawings done by her class. She began private painting lessons at age 12, and attended William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia. After hearing Gertrude Stein remark, "If you know what you want to do, then do it!," she told her father she wanted to go to art school. At his request, she completed the liberal arts courses she would need to succeed, and then transferred to Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), receiving her degree in sculpture in 1939.

After her graduation, she married her longtime friend and schoolmate at Carnegie, Robert Riester. She started her own ceramics company, Riester Slamming, taught at Carnegie, worked as a nurse's aide and ran the farm she and Bob had purchased.

Dorothy collaborated with her husband, a successful engineer, by designing the blades for a turbine Bob invented for the Navy during WWII. When Bob was offered a job at Carrier Corporation, the Riesters moved to Syracuse, where they bought a house on North Townsend Street. The restoration of that house became Dorothy's thesis for her master's degree program at Syracuse University.

Dorothy and Bob became volunteers at the Syracuse Museum when they first moved to Syracuse, and both served on its board of directors along with Cazenovia Junior College president Rhea Eckel. Dorothy and Rhea were part of the group that lobbied for the museum to become the Everson Museum.

In the late 1950s, Dorothy and Bob purchased a scenic 23-acre property on Stone Quarry Hill Road in Cazenovia, which eventually became Stone Quarry Hill Art Park. Dorothy and Bob built Hilltop House in 1960, and added a studio for Dorothy in 1962.

Known in former times as Picnic Hill, the Riesters' property had been a summer gathering place for area residents. From their earliest residence at Hilltop House, Dorothy placed her sculptures around the property, and the Riesters created walking trails and hosted summer concerts, art shows and other cultural gatherings.

It was Rhea Eckel who convinced Dorothy to start a ceramics program at Cazenovia College; she taught ceramics and design from 1965 to 1970, and over the years provided studio space at the Art Park for students in the College's Art and Design Program.

During her time as a professor of art, Dorothy became friends with Margaret A. "Peg" Rickett, housemother of Watts Hall, and assistant dean of students, who served the College from 1971 to 1990. Dorothy's bronze sculpture, "House Mother," created in memory of "Ma" Rickett, was installed in the garden at the entrance of Watts Hall in 2002.

Of the design, Dorothy said, "The seemingly simple shape gives the feeling of this housemother who is protective. It's tilted just a bit, to indicate questioning. From every angle, the conversation is different. Sculpture is a wonderful language. You can touch it, and feel it in ways that can't be communicated in words. I hope this sculpture communicates a lot about caring, giving, receiving, listening and helping – all the things that go on with mothers, and with Cazenovia College."

In addition to her love of art, Dorothy has a passion for preservation – the preservation of historic properties, and the preservation of the natural world. She was one of the founders of the Cazenovia Preservation Foundation in in the late 1970s. The idea of preservation was the driving force behind the Riesters' creation of Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, one of the first of its kind, in 1991. Wishing to preserve the land for public use, the Riesters formed a steering committee to help them frame a plan to make that happen. The original 23 acres had grown to 85 acres, much of which was designated for public use.

Finally, in the late 1990s, the remaining land and all the buildings still owned by Dorothy were deeded to the park, making way for a grant from the New York State Clean Air, Clean Water Bond Act, which paid for land to the south of the park that had been slated for a housing development. Adding that parcel of land brought the property to its present 104 acres. The park is included in the top ten sculpture parks and trails in the 2012 National Geographic publication: Secret Journeys of a Lifetime – 500 of the World's Best Hidden Travel Gems.

In 2010 some of Dorothy's works were part of the College's Summer Art Series exhibition, "Artists of Cazenovia: a Retrospective of Four Fabulous Women." In May of 2011 Stone Quarry Hill Art Park celebrated its 20th anniversary with a retrospective exhibit and celebration of Dorothy's art and vision. Since moving to The Nottingham senior living facility last summer, Dorothy has been creating wood sculptures. "They won't allow me to do welding in my apartment," she shared, with an impish grin. She also joined a writing class, and at the young age of 95, her current writing project is entitled "Bob and Me," where she is writing of the adventures she and Bob shared on their travels around the world.

It is a given that Dorothy relates her sculpture to the environment; the sculpture at Stone Quarry Hill Art Park is all about environment in one way or another. And focusing on her work that relates to the environment of Cazenovia College, the "Housemother" sculpture, she said, "I hope it will mirror not only the roles of the housemother and the students, but of the whole college and its feeling with the students, the campus and the importance it plays in all of our lives."

Photo: Dorothy Riester, Copyright 2011 by Marianne Smith Dalton

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