Heather Hertel   www.hhertel.com

Heather is a Syracuse University Rhodes Scholar Nominee. She is a Professor of Art at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches Painting & Drawing. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and a Master of Science in Art Education from Syracuse University. Her compass has led her to Florence, Italy to study at Santa Repararta International School of Art. She received a full fellowship for a residency at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and also attended Vermont Studio Center. Heather has taught an art movement workshop at the Art Students League of NY, NYC. Heather served as President of Mid-America College Art Association. 

Heather has been honored to receive the Circle of Mercy Award from Mercyhurst Preparatory School for exceptional service in the arts. 

Heather now embarks on adventure, integrating Art, Dance, and Sailing through her Sailcloth Art Project. She has been awarded two SRU Student Faculty Research Grants, and an Erie Arts & Culture grant. A collaborative exhibition debuted at the Bayfront Maritime Center, Erie, PA during the Tall Ships Festival. Followed by Dance & Fly aboard the Tall Ship: Pride of Baltimore 2, in the Baltimore Harbor. Her most recent collaboration, SOAR: An Interdisciplinary Performance Project was performed at the MACAA bi-annual conference at University of Nebraska, Lincoln with SRU Dance faculty, art students and dance students. 

Heather traveled abroad for her sabbatical, as a visiting scholar at Waikato Institute of Technology, Hamilton, NZ where she created a sailcloth art exhibition for the New Zealand Maritime Museum, Auckland, NZ. She continues to share her work at art and sailing venues nationally and internationally. Her artwork has been exhibited in four different continents.