2003 Award of Distinction Recipient
Mr. Keyser’s award was presented on June 14, 2003 by Gail Fredell, who studied with Mr. Keyser at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the 1970’s.
William A Keyser, Jr. taught furniture design at RIT for 34 years, where he received his M.F.A. in l961. He was elected an American Craft Council Fellow in l997, received a Carnegie-Mellon University merit award in l998, was awarded the grand prize in Modern Liturgy’s Visual Arts Awards competition in l986, and received an NEA Fellowship in l975. His furniture, sculpture, and paintings for residential, corporate, ecclesiastical, and public art use are represented in dozens of museum, university, corporate, and public collections, such as the American Craft Museum, Eastman Kodak, Johnson Wax Company, and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
Mr. Keyser has executed over 150 ecclesiastical objects, including 25 complete sanctuary ensembles, and more than 20 sculpture and/or public art commissions, including a 30-foot long stack laminated subway bench at the Alewife T station in Cambridge. In addition to maintaining his studio as a furniture maker and sculptor, at the time of his award Mr. Keyser was an M.F.A candidate in painting at RIT.