Southern Arkansas University Professor of Art Steven Ochs was recently announced as the 2013 Honor Professor, the ultimate faculty accolade at SAU.
Ochs is nationally recognized as a fine artist within the decorative concrete industry, but is known around campus for challenging students year after year and for being passionate about student success. He teaches ceramics, 3D design, both basic and advanced digital photography.
“While his exhibits have impressed audiences in museums and galleries, he has gone beyond the conventional artistic spaces and brought his work to communities, schools, and businesses,” said 2012 Honor Professor Mary Armwood while announcing her successor at the Faculty Awards Dinner at SAU on April 12, 2013. “His workshops with school children and teachers integrate the creative process into learning in a manner that prevents it from being simply an object of study.”
Ochs began teaching at SAU in 1991, and since then he has not only inspired his own classroom students, but a myriad of artists through his community art projects. During an interview at the World of Concrete 2011 conference in Las Vegas, he recalled one of his biggest concrete projects, the Riverwalk in Little Rock.
“It was more than 200 feet long, and we had to do research in 22 different museums and documented artifacts that were important in telling the story of the people and the relationship to the river,” Ochs said. “We hired only local artists in Little Rock. Anywhere we go in the U.S. our crews actually become the local artists of that region.”
According to Dan May, the chair of the Department of Art and Design at SAU, Ochs leads by example. “Mr. Ochs shows what artists aspire to be by tirelessly experimenting with form, materials and expression, and in the process of discovery shares what he has learned with students and faculty selflessly,” said May.
“This award is certainly the highest and most meaningful honor of my career, and the fact that it was an acknowledgement by my peers makes it even more so. As I reflect on what was significant and consistent in my 22-year tenure at SAU, I accredit this University with the academic freedom bestowed upon my colleagues and me,” said Ochs. “All of us must perform and strive for balance between teaching, research and service, but how we approach that is entirely up to us. The trust in us to prepare students for the future while pursuing our personal and professional interests is greatly prized and seemingly rare in education today.”
Ochs received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Eastern Illinois University, a Master of Arts from the University of Illinois and his Master of Fine Arts from Ohio University. He and his wife, Kerri, reside in Magnolia.