(Posted September 2, 2014)

Roberto Lugo
Roberto Lugo

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Roberto Lugo, an artist commissioned to create an outdoor sculpture to be installed outside the Juniata College Museum of Art, will give a talk on the project, as well as his life as a Pennsylvania artist, at 5 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 11, in Neff Lecture Hall in the von Liebig Center for Science on the Juniata campus.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Lugo's talk, "The Jar: A Mystery Within," will focus on Lugo's story as an artist, which begins in a poor neighborhood of Philadelphia and is traced through his education and his transition into social activism and building a studio art business.

"I hope my presentation will lead into a conversation about the need for diversity in the arts and its positive impact within the arts community," says Lugo, who operates an art studio in Bellefonte, Pa.

The sculpture Lugo is creating for the outdoor space will be a large faceted ceramic jar, to honor Juniata's celebrated ceramics program. The jar will feature images from the college's historic art museum, which started as a Carnegie Library.

"I hope my presentation will lead into a conversation about the need for diversity in the arts and its positive impact within the arts community."

Roberto Lugo, who operates an art studio in Bellefonte, Pa.

Lugo, who earned a master's degree in fine art from Penn State University, is originally from the Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia and found his first forays into art taking place spraying or writing graffiti on the streets of Philadelphia. After working for many years, he returned to art in 2007 taking classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree in fine arts in 2012 from the Kansas City Art Institute and is currently working on his master's degree in fine arts from Penn State University.

He has taught the beginning ceramics course at Penn State from 2012 to 2014 and taught the university's Ceramics Surface course in 2014. His work has been included in exhibitions nationally and internationally.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.