{"id":2691,"date":"2014-05-21T00:39:06","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T00:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=2691"},"modified":"2014-06-18T21:27:11","modified_gmt":"2014-06-18T21:27:11","slug":"rudich-retire-31-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2014\/05\/rudich-retire-31-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Rudich to Retire After 31 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Daniel Kessler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After over three decades at Fieldston, Richard Rudich has announced his plans to retire from the Visual Arts Department at the end of this year. Mr. Rudich, who began in 1983 as a temporary replacement, has been instrumental in the development of the school\u2019s architecture program, mapping a curriculum that begins in seventh grade, and continues straight through senior year.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the Fieldston community, Rudich provided insight into the timing of his decision. \u201cThis has been one of my happiest and most engaging years at Fieldston,\u201d he said, \u201cand it seems a perfect time, if there is such a time, to undertake some new challenges outside [of school].\u201d Mark Stracke, Chair of the Visual Arts Department, said that Rudich\u2019s \u201cextensive and various experience, wisdom, dedication to teaching, and generosity with adults and students alike\u201d are what made him such a special part of the department and the school as a whole.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month on Founder\u2019s Day, Rudich received a lengthy standing ovation from the students and faculty in attendance. Head of School Dr. Damian Fernandez acknowledged Mr. Rudich\u2019s contributions to the Fieldston community. \u201cHe is a gentleman, a scholar, and a craftsman,\u201d said Dr. Fernandez. \u201cHe has helped students to craft lives of their own. Richard, we can\u2019t wait to see what you do in this next phase of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up, Mr. Rudich lived in Upper Manhattan, near Fort Tryon Park. \u201cThe Cloisters had a great impact on my imagination and aesthetic sensibility and remain my favorite museum in New York,\u201d he said. \u201c[They] helped make me an artist and a gardener, a quiet observer of the marvels of human invention.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Mr. Rudich didn\u2019t always think of himself as a man of the arts. In high school, the now art teacher had his eye on math and science. However, his studies at Columbia University gave Rudich a look into the various architectural styles and techniques of civilizations past. He was hooked. \u201cThere were no studio arts offered at that time [at Columbia],\u201d said Mr. Rudich, \u201cbut I started to think of architecture as my professional destination.\u201d<\/p>\n

After college, Mr. Rudich traveled to Italy and Egypt for a year, then returned to Columbia for Architecture school. Mr. Rudich continued to cultivate his interest in studio arts. Toward the end of his Architecture school career, he developed a passion for ceramic sculpture, and eventually went back to school to earn an MFA in ceramics and painting.<\/p>\n

By the 1980\u2019s, Mr. Rudich had shows in New York, Chicago, London, and the Hamptons. His work began to circulate through the art world, leading to The Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2019s purchase of an assortment of pieces from his very first show. Then, as Mr. Rudich puts it, \u201calong came Fieldston.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Rudich credits most of his tenure at Fieldston to pure chance. \u201cMuch that happens in life is accidental and one must pay attention to the unexpected,\u201d he explains. \u201cI did not intend to fall in love when I first came to Fieldston, nor did I intend to stay for thirty years. I started as a one-semester replacement in the art department in 1983. It was very challenging, exhausting work teaching a variety of arts, from metal sculpture to printmaking and painting and drawing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the challenge of learning how to connect with his students on a personal level was even more strenuous for Mr. Rudich than teaching the arts themselves. \u201cI had ambitious ideas but not yet the language to communicate with my audience,\u201d he says. \u201cI used to joke with my students that I came from Nis [in Serbia]. This was to explain any difficulties I had speaking with and listening to teenagers.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Mr. Rudich\u2019s surprise, the person he was filling in for decided not to return and Fieldston offered him a permanent job. He accepted the position and continued to teach a wide range of classes including woodworking and architectural drawing. But, to his dismay, a few years later the woodworking program was eliminated from the Fieldston course of studies. Mr. Rudich \u201cfelt urgency about replacing it with classes that would somehow engage and encourage similar skills in design and craftsmanship,\u201d so he used the theme of architecture \u201cto build a new program that [would grow] steadily over the years\u201d in all divisions at school. Mr. Rudich achieved his goal; his passion for handworked art (\u201cWe know the world through our hands as much as through our eyes,\u201d he claims) helped fuel the development of Fieldston\u2019s renowned visual arts department.<\/p>\n

As one might expect, Mr. Rudich isn\u2019t leaving the same Fieldston he encountered over three decades ago. Sadly, he says, \u201cFieldston was more quirky and original thirty years ago. It did not have all the corporate aspects, all the outsourcing that we have today.\u201d Mr. Rudich also seems worried about the character of the school. \u201cIt was much smaller and more self-sufficient [when I arrived at Fieldston]. The middle and upper schools shared a campus and there was a certain artful edginess to life [here].\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the development of the art facilities during his time at Fieldston, Mr. Rudich says things \u201chave changed quite a bit over the years\u201d and that \u201cstudios have changed function or been renovated. The architecture room was quite a dump and had a lovely rehab about twelve years ago,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rudich takes pride in students of his who have gone on to work in the fields of architecture, industrial design, art history, and more. Among his most successful prot\u00e9g\u00e9s include a graffiti painter in Spain and a teacher at the Neue Bauhaus in Germany. As Mr. Rudich puts it, \u201csome [of these students] were very strong [academically]. Some struggled in every way but were brilliant with their hands and imagination and did very well after Fieldston.\u201d<\/p>\n

The soon-to-be retiree says he will miss many things about Fieldston, but he has a special place in his heart for the secretarial staff at school. The people in the office \u201c[have] always been the best: enormously competent and supportive, very cheerful and unflappable. They have helped me get through every mistake and misstep and never ratted on me,\u201d he says. In the end, though, Rudich has cherished interactions with his trainees more than anything else. \u201cThe conversation with my students…is without a doubt what I will miss the most,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt has been sustaining and enriching, seriously inappropriate sometimes, incomprehensible, and instructive.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why leave now? \u201cI am perfectly happy at Fieldston,\u201d Mr. Rudich says, \u201cbut after thirty years it is time for a change and new challenges. I hope to spend more time in my studio than has been possible these last few years.\u201d Mr. Rudich also hopes to designate some of his free time to travel. \u201cThere is much of the world that I still haven\u2019t seen,\u201d he remarks. \u201cUruguay comes to mind. And Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n

We will forever remember Mr. Rudich for his contributions as an educator and innovator within the arts department and throughout the Fieldston community. His retirement marks the end of an era. But for someone who seems to have had such a lasting and wide-ranging impact on our institution, Mr. Rudich\u2019s approach to teaching is surprisingly straightforward. \u201cMy objective [has been] to get students to look at the built world and to question what they [see]. And I wanted to give them some experience of the architectural imagination through accessible projects that involved deceptively simple ideas and challenging craftsmanship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like his education strategy, Mr. Rudich kept his parting words for the Fieldston community short: \u201c\u00a1Hasta pronto! \u00a0I’ll be back!\u201d<\/p>\n

Fieldston thanks you, Mr. Rudich, and we look forward to following your future endeavors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After over three decades at Fieldston, Richard Rudich has announced his plans to retire from the Visual Arts Department at the end of this year. Mr. Rudich, who began in 1983 as a temporary replacement, has been instrumental in the development of the school\u2019s architecture program, mapping a curriculum that begins in seventh grade, and continues straight through senior year. In a letter to the Fieldston community, Rudich provided insight into the timing of his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":2764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"coauthors":[50,96],"class_list":["post-2691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Rudich-Banner.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2697,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions\/2697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2691"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}