Recognizing the Foundation Bob Slenker Laid
In April, IUP’s Graphic Design and Illustration program held a three-day event celebrating the alumni-student connections that have made the program successful.
Called Slenkfest, the celebration will continue annually. It honors the late Robert Slenker, an IUP professor emeritus of art whose name often comes up in discussions about why the program and its graduates have thrived.
Susan Burig and student Luke Leccia during a portfolio review
Nearly a decade ago, Graphic Design became an official track of the Art Studio program, and in 2022, it became its own degree program (Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Studio/Graphic Design and Illustration). Last year’s review of IUP’s academic structure determined the program has the potential to grow even more.
“One of the things that makes our program unique is our alumni, who hold top positions in the graphic design field and who are actively involved in helping our students and graduates find meaningful career opportunities,” professor and program coordinator Tony DiMauro said.
A 2006 IUP graduate who joined the faculty in 2012 after doing agency work in New York, DiMauro is among those active, successful alumni. Another is John Ritter ’88, a nationally known illustrator and designer who, with DiMauro, generated the idea for Slenkfest.
Ritter credits Slenker, IUP’s first graphic design professor, with shaping the program and with creating an “atmosphere of connection” with students, alumni, and the university. “It just felt right,” he said, “to recognize the foundation that he laid for the program and for alumni success—including my own success.”
Bob Slenker on a visit with his former students in California in the late ’90s. From left: Don Donoughe ’80, John Ritter ’88, Slenker, and Ron Donoughe ’80.
Slenker graduated from Indiana State Teachers College in 1952 and taught in the Art Department for 36 years before retiring in 1998. He died in 2001, almost three years to the day after his wife and fellow art faculty member, Jean Johnson Slenker ’53.
Slenkfest activities included the opening of Ritter’s Energy and Color: Thirty Years of Illustration exhibition at the University Museum in Sutton Hall. In a radio interview, Ritter described the retrospective as a “narrative about how dots can be connected—how you can leave IUP with an undergraduate education, take advantage of connections and opportunities, and find yourself doing really interesting things.”
Ritter picked through his more than 4,000 commissioned illustrations to prepare for the exhibition, which included images from the New Yorker, Time, Harper’s, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, and more. Coming to IUP as a student from Export, he left for California—his longtime plan—soon after graduation. A 2021 recipient of IUP’s Distinguished Alumni Award, he’s now back in western Pennsylvania and leads the design team at IUP.
John Ritter at work in his Sprowls Hall studio
Slenkfest also featured a presentation by Ritter’s IUP classmate, Susan Burig, an award-winning graphic designer for the entertainment industry with scores of feature films—including many for the Marvel Cinematic Universe—to her credit. She described her work as designing the “details that make the specific world, period, and genre feel real,” and through film clips, she showed examples ranging from fictitious company logos to pages of an old book to the neon signs and silhouettes that signified the nightlife on planet Contraxia in Guardians of the Galaxy II.
An Allison Park/Shaler native now living in California and Atlanta, Burig was also on campus to receive the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award. In addition to Slenker and Ritter, she counts professor emeritus James Nestor and classmate Scott Blasey, lead singer of the Clarks, among the people from IUP who inspired her.
During her talk, she encouraged students to be bold and not to shy away from any opportunities to learn. “I did it,” she said, “and I was you sitting in those seats. Love what you do and take the next step.”
Other Slenkfest activities included a meet and greet in Sprowls Hall for alumni and students and a chance for upper-level students to have professional graphic designers review their portfolios. In addition to Burig and Ritter, alumni reviewers included Sean McCauley ’01, Morgan Cunningham ’16, and Alex Salyers ’16.