Dedication to Dean Nimmer
These two exhibitions are dedicated to the memory of Dean Henry Nimmer (b.1945 - d. 2023). Dean was a former longtime faculty member and Chair of both MassArt's Core (Studio Foundation) and FA2D departments.
Nimmer was a natural showman. (He had been the drummer for the psychedelic band, The Baroques, in the late 1960's). Owning a colorful and exuberant personality matched only by his artistic output, he brought to both his studio practice and his studio teaching a foundational belief in the transformative powers of art-making. For Dean, both as an artist and as a teacher, process and intuition are paramount. Seeing where one ends up in that process, as well as the judgements that ensue from stepping outside the art-making process, are secondary affairs.
In 1977, Dean "invented" the MassArt Auction to fund scholarship aid for students in the FA2D department. He continued to organize the event and serve as its Chief Auctioneer for the next dozen years.
In the Spring of 1979, during a state fiscal crisis and fierce debate over appropriations for higher education in Massachusetts, Dean conceived the idea of sending MassArt students "in busloads" to the Massachusetts State House - to draw, paint, film, and photograph Massachusetts legislators. The goal was to make MassArt more visible as a valuable public institution and garner support for its survival. Like many members of the MassArt community, Dean had been grappling with the question of how MassArt might play an actionable role in its own survival. The answer came to him late one night “in a dream” in April of 1979.
As dreams sometimes do, Dean’s dream proved prescient. The collective action resulting from it, involving both MassArt students and faculty, was “a spectacular success.” In no insignificant measure, MassArt owes its very survival as the only independent public art college in the country to Dean and his "dream."
These exhibitions celebrate Dean, his legacy, and his impact upon the College.
Dean Nimmer at the exhibition of MassArt student portraits of Massachusetts Legislators, drawn or initiated on May 16, 1979 (photograph June 20, 1979).
An annual feature at the processional of MassArt's faculty each year on Commencement Day was Dean Nimmer's white-gloved appearance on roller blades.
In this Boston Globe photograph dated May 27th, 1982, Dean was captured skating down Longwood [Avenue] by Globe photographer Kevin Twombly.