Melvin Ziegler
Mel Ziegler currently lives and works in Nashville, Tenn., and is the Paul E. Shwab Endowed Chair in Fine Arts and professor of Art and Community Engagement in the Department of Art at Vanderbilt University. Ziegler’s practice has examined the role of art in public space, the socially-constructed dimensions of our natural environment, the value of manual labor, and the importance of collaboration between artist and community.
He is the founder and executive director of the Sandhills Institute, “a catalyst for the creation of civically-engaged integrated art in and around the agricultural community” on the historic Davis Pine Creek Ranch near Rushville in northwest rural Nebraska. Ziegler is renovating a 4,000 square foot building on Main Street Rushville to develop a gallery and community orientated cultural space specifically to enhance the programing and goals of the Sandhills Institute and embrace the economics and cultural heritage of this rural region.