LES REKER Landscape Painter
lreker4@gmail.com
HomeMuseum Postions Held:
Director, RURAL HERITAGE MUSEUM, MARS HILL UNIVERSITY, Mars Hill (near Asheville), North Carolina, 2013-
Executive Director, THE ELLEN NOËL ART MUSEUM, Odessa, Texas, 2010-2013
Executive Director, THE SAGINAW ART MUSEUM, Saginaw, Michigan, 2005-2009
Executive Director, THE ART MUSEUM OF GREATER LAFAYETTE, Lafayette, Indiana, 2002-2005
Director of Collections, THE COLUMBUS MUSEUM, Columbus, Georgia, 1999-2002
Director/Curator, PAYNE GALLERY OF MORAVIAN COLLEGE, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1984-1999
Exhibitions Coordinator, NORTHAMPTON COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, Bethlehem, Pa., 1980-84
Exhibitions Coordinator, LEHIGH COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, Schnecksville, Pa., 1980-84
Exhibitions Committee Chairperson, FIRST STREET GALLERY, New York, New York, 1979-81
Other Museum Experience:
Peer Reviewer, Museum Assessment Program (MAP), American Association of Museums, 1999-
Grants Panel Reviewer, Texas Council for the Arts, 2011-2012
Professional Organizations:
Association of College and University Museums and Galleries (Member since 1985)
President, 1999-2002
Board Member and Mid-Atlantic Representative, 1993-2002
American Association of Museums
Council of Affiliates Representative, 1999-2002
College Art Association (Member since 1975)
Museums Committee, 1995-1999
American Association [Alliance] of Museums (Member since 1985)
Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (1985-1999)
Southeast Museums Conference (1999-2002) 2013-
Georgia Historical Society (1999-2002)
Association of Midwest Museums (2002-2005)
Association of Indiana Museums (2002-2005)
Mountain Plains Museums Association (2010- )
Texas Association of Museums (2010- 2013)
West Texas Triangle Museum Consortium (2010- 2013)
Professional Museum Conference Presentations and Papers:
American Association of Museums:
“Professional Roundtable, College and University and University Museums and Galleries”, Washington, DC, 1997:
Presented papers:
“Advocating for Intellectual Analysis and Study of Collections in the Campus Museum”
“Integrating the Collections and Museums into Campus Teaching”
Association of College and University Museums and Galleries
National Conference Co-Chair, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (at Ursinus College) May 1995
National Conference Chair, Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 1996
National Conference Chair, Atlanta, Georgia,(at Spellman College) May 1997
National Conference Co-Chair, Los Angeles, California (at UCLA) May 1998
National Conference Co-Chair, Cleveland, Ohio, (at Oberlin College) May 1999
College Art Association
Museum Panel Co-Chair: “Living Artists and Museums: Scholars and Museums", National Conference, New York,
New York, February 1997.
Museum Panelist: “What does the Public Come to See: Museum Architecture and the display of the Permanent
Collection”, College Art Association National Conference, Los Angeles, California, February 1999
Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums
Session Chair: “Let’s Pool Our Resources: “The Who’s, What’s and Why’s of Collaboration”,
Annapolis, Maryland, October, 1994
Session Chair: “College and University Museums and Galleries Roundtable”, Annual Conference, Rochester,
New York, October, 1998
Teaching positions Held:
Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
Professor of Art, 1999
Associate Professor of Art, 1988 to 1999
Assistant Professor of Art, 1984-1989
Kutztown University, Kutztown, Pennsylvania
Assistant Professor Art, 1982
Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Adjunct Professor Art, 1982
Lehigh Carbon Community College, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania
Adjunct Professor Art, 1979-84
Northampton County Community College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Adjunct Professor of Art, 1979-84
The Baum School of Art, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Instructor of Art, 1976-9
Carbon-Lehigh Regional Summer School of the Arts, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania
Instructor, 1977-70
Exhibitions curated/organized for the Rural Heritage Museum, Mars Hill University (as Director)
5/13 "Interwoven: Coverlets, Ballads and America's Discovers of Madison County Folk Life"
9/14 "OUR STORY THIS PLACE: The History of African American Education in Madison County, North Carolina,
The Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School"
3/15 "Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual: Tradition and Innovation"
6/15 "HOW THE WEST WAS WON: Trains and the Transformation of Western North Carolina"
2/16 "The Carolina Mountains: Photography by Margaret Morley from the North Carolina Museum of History"
7/16 " Cabinet of Curiosity: Selections from the Permanent Collection"
10/16 " Shelter in the Mountains: Barns and Building Traditions in the Southern Highlands"
Exhibitions curated/organized/supervised for The ELLEN NOËL ART MUSEUM(as Executive Director):
04/10 ECISD Jr. And Sr. High School Exhibitions
5/10 A Legacy of Art: Gifts to the Collections
8/10 George Mendoza: Colors of the Wind
8/10 The Global Artistry of Leo and Diane Dillon: A Retrospective
11/10 British Paintings 1550-1800: From the Collection of the Sarah Blaffer Foundation
11/10 The Art of English Beadwork from the 19th Century
1/11 The Art of Devotion: Latin American Religious Art from San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts
1/11 William Schickel: Spirit Made Manifest
5/11 ECISD Jr. And Sr. High School Exhibitions
5/11 Inside Information: Works on Paper by Warren Taylor
5/11 Sculpture by Steve Teeters
5/11 Expressions of Character
6/11 Sculpture by George Tobolowsky
9/11 Beyond Paper Folding: The Art of Joan Son
9/11 The Wizards of Pop: Sabuda and Reinhart
10/11 From the Pueblo to West Texas: Paintings by René Alvarado
11/11 A Secret Passion: Vintage Costumes from the Linda Smetak Collection
1/12 Downstream: Paintings by Joyce Howell
2/12 The Mike and Linda Tilton Collection
3/12 A Visual Feast: Narrative Stitching by Cindy Hickok
3/12 People’s Choice: From the Vault of the Ellen Noël Art Museum
6/12 Grass Roots: African Origins of An American Art
6/12 Flour Girls: Mixed Media Art by Letitia Huckaby
6/12 Sculpture by Catherine Lee
8/17 In Plane View: Abstractions of Flight (From the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum)
9/12 Art That Soars: The History and Magic of Kites
11/12 Art Glass 1880-1949: From the Becker Collection
11/12 Wish You Were Here: The Artistry of Postcards from the Green Collection
11/12 Destinations in Painting: From the Kasten Collection
Exhibitions curated/organized/supervised for The SAGINAW ART MUSEUM (as Executive Director):
06/05 Michigan Invitational: Architecture
09/05 Mexico: Art and Civilization
01/06 Eanger Irving Couse: Impressions
01/06 Vaclav Vaca: Canadian Surrealist
03/06 Arnold Kolb: Art of the Infinite
04/06 The Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci
05/06 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Saginaw Japanese Tea House
06/06 *Michigan Invitational: Photography
11/06 *From Baga to Yoruba: Treasures of African Art from the Smithsonian National Museum African Art and the
Benjamin Cox Collection
01/07 Michigan Modernists: Henry and Julia Roecker and Their Contemporaries
06/07 Michigan Invitational: Taming the Flame, Decorative Artworks in Iron and Glass
09/07 Art and Spirit of India
01/08 An Unforgotten Part: Images of the Native American by Eanger Irving Couse
02/08 A Sense of Place: Landscape Paintings from the Permanent Collection
03/08 Lois Teicher: A Sculptural Retrospective 1979 – 2008
05/08 Art for All: Selections from the Permanent Collection: 2500 BCE – Present
06/08 Michigan Invitational: They Practice What They Teach, Paintings by Michigan College and University Professors
09/08 From Harbor To Home: A Selection of Etchings by Charles Adams Platt
09/08 Life As A Legend: Marilyn Monroe
11/08 In Search of Motion: The Sculpture of John Cavanaugh 1921 - 1985
03/09 E.I Couse: A Place In The Sun
06/09 Central Michigan University 2009 BFA Graduate Exhibition
10/ 09 Indelible (P)ink: The Pink Panther and Popular Culture
Exhibitions curated/organized or supervised for The ART MUSEUM OF GREATER LAFAYETTE (as Executive Director):
11/02 William Merritt Chase: Four Paintings from the Lilly Endowment Collections and the Students of Chase
02/03 Indiana Now!
04/03 New Artists 2003
04/03 Selections from 30 Years of ‘Round the Fountain
06/03 Selections from the Permanent Collection
09/03 Paintings by Tim Kennedy
11/03 Italian Landscapes of Al Pounders
01/04 INDesign: Indiana Product Design Exhibition
04/04 New artists 2004
04/04 Re-installation of Permanent Collection Galleries: Choice Works
05/04 Inauguration of Works on paper Gallery: Portraits from the Collection
05/04 Inauguration of Collection Spotlight Program: Prints by Will Barnett
06/04 They Fly at Night: Digital Prints by Joseph Scheer
05/04 Hollis Sigler: Breast Cancer Journals
09/04 Paintings by Indiana Artists Exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair
09/04 Journeys: Prints by Catherine Bebout
12/04 Remedium Amoris: Figurative Works by Matthew Davey in Drawings, Paintings and Bronzes
02/05 Indiana Now!
Exhibitions curated/organized or supervised for The COLUMBUS MUSEUM (as Director of Collections):
11/99 Alma Thomas: A Retrospective of the Paintings
03/00 Digging History: The Archeology of Columbus (accompanied by an in-house produced interactive CD-ROM)
04/00 *Robert Motherwell at the Columbus Museum
05/00 *Janet Fish: Recent Paintings
04/00 When Dining Was An Art: Tiffany Silver Flatware
06/00 POP! An American Sensation
09/00 Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
10/00 FDR in Georgia: A President's Chattahoochee Legacy
10/00 Contemporary Conservation: Protecting Objects in the Museum and at Home
02/01 *Southeastern Folk Pottery from the Collection of Allen Woodall
04/01 *Abstract Expressionism and the New American Realism: Paintings by Jack Beal and Philip Pearlstein
06/01 Making Faces: A Selection of Portraits by John Sloan
10/01 *Folk Art from the Wade Hall Collection
11/01 *Antique Toys
2/02 *Robert Birmelin: States of Mind
3/02 Patrick Nagatani
4/02 Pablo Cano
5/02 *Curator's Potpourris: Selections from the Permanent Collection
6/02 New Media For A New Century
* sole curator
Exhibitions curated/organized for the PAYNE GALLERY OF MORAVIAN COLLEGE (as Director and Curator):
1984
09/11 “Contemporary Graphic Design and Illustration”
10/07 “Robert Adams: Our Lives and Our Children”
11/18 “The Pennsylvania Ceramist: The Container”
1985
01/03 “Artifacts from the Moravian Alaskan Missions 1885-1985”
02/24 “Fourth National Print Show”
04/09 “Contemporary Narrative Figures Painting: Birmelin/Bravo/Geiger/Golub/McGarrell”
05/16 “Senior Show 1985
07/01 “Moravians and their Music: An Enduring Tradition”
09/21 “Ricardo Viera: Anatomy of an Island (Cuba)” (Installation)
10/14 “Artificial Light: Paintings by William L. Haney”
12/02 “Selections from Raymond C. Holland Automotive Antique and Toy Collection”
1986
02/12 “The Hudson River School and the American Landscape Tradition”
03/19 “Cyril Lixemberg: The Logic of Opposites Steel and Lucite” (Artist from Amsterdam)
04/25 “Maciek Albrecht, works-1983-1986” (Artist from Poland)
05/13 “Senior Show 1986”
07/01 “Young People’s Art from Shanghai, the People’s Republic of China”
09/01 “Photographs of Central Pennsylvania”
10/01 “Intimate and Intense: New Genre Painting”
11/04 “Landscape Paintings by Marjorie Portnow”
12/03 “Acquisitions Old and New: Selections from the Permanent Collection”
1987
02/03 “Fifth National Print Show”
03/10 “A Mathematician Views Escher” (Original work from the National Gallery of Art)
04/04 “Jan Kubasiewicz/Jan Marceli Glinski” (Artists from Poland)
05/13 “Senior Show 1987”
06/01 “Contemporary Printmakers from India”
09/10 “Robert Arneson: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture”
10/27 “Kris Ruh’s Untitled Theatre: Paintings and Installation”
12/03 “Bethlehem Silver”
1988
02/04 “Watercolors: David Dewey, George Harkins and Peter Holbrook”
03/03 “Studio Art Faculty Show”
03/24 “New York Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition”
04/28 “1988 Senior Show”
06/08 “Annual Hunterdon Print Show”
07/07 “Music and Dance in Papua, New Guinea”
09/22 “Clarence Holbrook Carter: A Retrospective”
11/03 “W. Elmer Schofield: Proud Painter of Modest Lands”
12/15 “Recent Acquisitions: Drawings by W. Elmer Schofield”
1989
02/09 “Sixth National Print Show”
03/09 “Alternative Visions: 7 Photographic Artists”
04/14 “Senior Show 1989”
06/10 “Indians in the Crossfire: The Miskito and Sumo Peoples”
09/07 “Esther Grillo: Her Psyche” (Installation)
10/12 “Gustavus Grunewald, 1805-1878: Paintings from the Permanent Collection”
11/16 “Really Dreaming: Paintings and Prints by Daniel Chard and Daniel Lang”
12/10 “Art Faculty Exhibition”
1990
03/15 “Society of Illustrators Special Exhibit Editorial and Book Sections”
04/19 “Senior Show 1990”
06/01 “Hunterdon National Print Show”
07/01 “Selections from the Permanent Collection”
08/18 “The Landscapes of Philip Koch”
10/04 “The Pennsylvania Ceramist”
11/29 “Sound and Motion: The Bertoia Legacy”
1991
02/07 “Florence Putterman” (Organized by Pennsylvania State University)
03/07 "David Lynch: Early Paintings”
04/04 “Seventh National Juried Print Show”
05/05 “Senior Show 1991”
06/01 “Selections from the Permanent Collection”
06/20 “In Our Element: An American - Welsh Exchange” (artists from Wales)
10/03 “Paintings and Drawings from Nazareth Hall” (19th Century Children’s Drawings)
11/22 “Views of Bethlehem: Juried Photo Show” (with the City of Bethlehem)
1992
01/16 “Bethlehem: Through the Eye of the Artist” (250th Anniversary of Moravian College)
02/27 “Doors & Windows: Clarence Carter, George Segal, and Tova Navarra”
04/02 “Faculty Exhibition”
05/03 “Senior Show 1992”
06/01 “Selections from the Permanent Collection”
09/10 “Dreams, Illusions & Realities: Paintings by Fred Danziger”
11/22 “Paintings by Sheba Sharrow”
12/03 “Pennsylvania Impressionists: Masters of Color and Light”
1993
01/29 “Mark Rothko: The Spirit of Myth”
03/04 “Eighth National Print Show”
04/01 “Galactic Visions: Impressions of a Sculptural Living Environment (Shawn Paris)”
05/09 “Senior Show 1993”
06/12 “Selections from the Permanent Collection: Recent Acquisitions”
09/09 “Thirty Artists from Scotland”
10/21 “A Certain Darkness: Photographs by Susan Fenton/Connie Imboden/Judy Taylor”
11/26 “The Culture and Elegance of Victorian Bethlehem”
1994
02/03 “Studio Faculty Exhibition”
03/03 “Contemporary Sculpture Directions”
04/10 “Senior Show 1994”
06/06 “Selections from the Permanent Collection”
09/29 “Native America: Reflecting Contemporary Realities”
10/27 “Ninth Biennial National Print Show”
12/13 “The Biblical Prints of Sadao Watanabe”
1995
01/26 “North American Indian Paintings by George Catlin”
03/02 “Land Survey: 1970-1995 Landscape Paintings by Diane Burko”
04/02 “Senior Show 1995”
05/21 “Art with the Needle: Stitchery, Embroidery and Needlework”
06/15 “Selections from the Permanent Collection”
08/12 “Jerry Yarnell: The Inspiration of Painting”
09/14 “Gaston Lachaise: Sculpture and Drawing”
10/19 “Edward Curtis: Photographs of the Native American”
12/07 “Steven Assael: Paintings and Drawings”
1996
02/08 “38th Annual Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition”
03/14 “Studio Art Faculty Exhibition’
04/14 “Senior Show 1996”
05/20 “Selections from the Permanent Collection”
09/12 “David Hollowell : Paintings and Drawings”
11/24 “New Directions in Holography: Landscape Revisited”
12/05 “10th Biennial National Print Show”
1997
01/30 “Sandy Winters: Paintings and Installation”
03/13 “Robert Birmelin: A Retrospective”
04/20 “Senior Show 1997”
05/20 “Selections from the Permanent Collection”
09/25 “Dan Dallmann: Paintings and Drawings”
10/06 “Drawings and paintings from the Kai-Loo Huang Collection of Chinese Art”
11/30 “Selections from the Permanent Collection”
1998
01/22 “Doug Loewen: Call and Response” (a sculptural installation)
04/19 “Juried Senior Show”
05/24 “Selections from the Permanent Collection”
09/05 “Treasures of Deceit: Archaeology and the Forger’s Craft”
11/12 “Istvan Orosz (Czechoslovakian Artist)”
12/17 “Dark Odyssey: Philip Jones Griffiths”
1999
02/11 “11th Biennial National Print Show”
04/22 “Senior Show 1999”
