March 2009

David Dahlquist Receives the 2009 School of Education Alumni Award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Des Moines, IA – David B. Dahlquist, Artist for RDG Dahlquist Art Studio and Partner with RDG Planning & Design has been honored by his alma mater. The Alumni Achievement Award is the highest honor bestowed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education upon an alumnus. It recognizes an exemplary record of professional leadership and a career of extraordinary accomplishment.

Widely acclaimed for his career in public art, David Dahlquist has been awarded and has successfully completed more than 30 large-scale public art commissions since 1988. These include ten major site commissions for the Iowa Department of Transportation. One of his most ambitious projects is the R&R Realty Paragon Prairie Tower in Urbandale, Iowa. The tower, 16 feet in diameter and more than 100 feet tall, is a state-of-the-art Italian glass mosaic with terra cotta and lighting that depicts Iowa wild flowers. This project received the Spectrum International Award of Merit in 2008 and is currently the largest Italian glass mosaic mural in the U.S. This was a multi-disciplinary project in conjunction with the architects and lighting designers of RDG Planning & Design. David Dahlquist merged his studio with RDG, a nationally recognized multi-disciplinary design firm in 2004. He now leads RDG Dahlquist Art Studio, a hands-on design and fabrication facility with a staff of 10 artists, integrated within the 108-staffed Iowa firm. Dahlquist’s artwork also is represented in more than 50 corporate, public and private collections.

In addition to recognizing Dahlquist’s contributions to public art, the Alumni Award honors his career-long support of developing artists through university and community initiatives. In the late 1980s, he transformed a struggling ceramics program at the Iowa State University College of Design into one of the most active and innovative undergraduate ceramic curriculums in the state. Later, he worked with a consortium of Central Iowa colleges and universities to develop a satellite ceramics studio and workshops in public art.

He was the co-chair appointed by the mayor that established the first public art program in Des Moines. His commitment to arts outreach is exemplary; he has provided more than 60 workshops and presentations to schools, colleges and universities nationwide.

“David Dahlquist has done magnificent work since graduating from Wisconsin. It is most appropriate to honor him as one of our outstanding alumni,” says Elaine Scheer, chair of the UW-Madison Department of Art.

Dahlquist received a B.S. in Art with Honors in 1980 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. One of eight departments in the UW School of Education, the Department of Art is noted for its breadth of media, offering more than a dozen programs that range from printmaking and painting to sculpture and ceramics. Under the direction of Harvey Littleton in the 1960s, the department pioneered the first formal glassworking courses.

Dahlquist will be presented with the School of Education Alumni Achievement Award at a special luncheon in his honor on May 6, 2009, at the Grand Opening of the Art Lofts building on the UW-Madison campus.

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