For Ron Pederson it isn’t about the award he received from the International Sculpture Center for Educator of the Year. It isn’t about his new art exhibit “Professing Sculpture.” For Pederson, it’s all about the students.

“Basically the award is for teaching and because I’ve always had the attitude that it’s all about the students,” said Pederson.

Although Pederson is characteristically humble about the award, a look at his teaching philosophy fully justifies the award. His entire career has not only been about teaching art to students but also about teaching them to follow their passions.

“The Aquinas Art Department, myself included, wants people to be great art students but also to be able to take what they’ve learned and apply it to everything in their lives,” said Pederson. “As teachers we not only teach art but also creative thinking. Our students learn to apply this concept of logic and non-logic to their lives. It makes them…calculatedly analytical.”

Pederson sets a high value on the importance of mentoring and passing along talent and knowledge from one generation to another. While in the AMC a week before his exhibition, he was visited by a current student and her parents. She was showing them a sculpture she had made in one of Pederson’s classes.

“The dad of my student came up to me and said ‘I was your student in 1983 and you were an amazing teacher.’ That’s what I want to see. It’s all about helping young people find their way,” said Pederson. “This man was my student, and now his daughter is. They’ve found the same passion. I want to help people find their passion and equip them to make good decisions in every aspect in life.

“I think about the big picture,” he says. “I want students to experience their passion and pass it on to generations after generations. I want to be a good mentor and I want those people I teach to be in the habit of helping the next generation. That’s my vision of eternity.”

Pederson’s most recent art exhibit “Professing Sculpture: Ron Pederson and Seven Students from Three Decades” reinforces that vision. This exhibit focuses on sculpture, but not all of them in traditional form. Some of the pieces will be video and sound infusion sculptures. All of the artists featured in this exhibit are past students of Pederson who have grown under his insightful teaching and care.

“I had a mentoring relationship with everyone in this exhibit. I had so many talented students to choose from but I chose the ones in the exhibit because they represented the different times in art and teaching of myself. I had to pass over many good sculptures, but the ones I chose define me over the past three decades,” explained Pederson.

Pederson’s son, Ben, will also be featured in the exhibit. Ben Pederson graduated from Aquinas in 2003 and went on for his graduate degree in Sculpture at University of Massachusetts.

“I’m very proud of my dad,” said Ben. “I think people are critical of those who teach art. They say if you can’t make it as an artist, you teach instead. And with my dad he’s thrived more because of teaching.

“He gets his students to speak their own artistic language. His teaching has enriched his own work, it’s fed him,” said Ben. “He has never, ever complained about teaching and it’s always been about the students for him-that’s why he won this award. He has touched many people’s lives.”

One of Ben Pederson’s pieces in the exhibit is one of the non-traditional sculptures.

“I set up these conference calls… between different McDonald’s in different countries-Spain, London, Paris,” explains Ben. “They’ll be talking to each other thinking the other person called them when really they both called each other. They are confused and they just can’t figure it out. But it forces a relationship between people, regardless of their language or cultural barriers.”

It just goes to show how creative and innovative artists can be, especially when those artists are mentored by Ron Pederson. Exhibit visitors will be able to pick up various telephone extensions and hear the different conversations from around the world.

Another exhibit, by former Aquinas student Amy Sharp, is also a non-traditional piece that focuses on video sculpture, and a famous theory developed by Pederson himself.

“I have this theory called the Beckoning and Humming Theory of Junk Collecting. I encourage students to go to junkyards and look for scraps to use in their artwork. I tell them that there are pieces that will beckon to you and demand your attention. And then there will be pieces that hum,” said Pederson, “You’ll always pick the things that hum because they will hum forever.

Sharp elaborated on Pederson’s theory in her own artistic way. She video taped different people ‘beckoning and humming’ and compiled the separate videos so that they responded to each other. Her videos will be playing at the exhibit. “The video will keep beckoning and humming until it’s turned off,” she said.

Pederson’s artwork and teaching will also be traveling across the sea next semester. Ron, along with his wife and professor at Aquinas, will be joining the Ireland study abroad program to Tully Cross for the fifth time. Pederson will be offering an art class for non-majors while abroad.

“It will be a drawing and painting class with an emphasis on creating landscapes,” said Pederson, “It will be perfect while in Ireland. Tully Cross is an unbelievable place to learn how to paint and draw landscapes.”

“I am so excited to go back to Tully Cross. It will be like going back to my home town,” said Pederson, “When I make that final turn in Connemara, the last turn towards home, that’s when my heart starts. I love it.”

The ISC award ceremony will take place Friday, October 3rd at Fredrick Meijer Gardens. All of the students in the exhibit will be attending the award ceremony as well. When asked if he was excited about receiving such a prestigious award, Pederson responded, “Well, I have Scandinavian heritage and when people ask if I’m excited about something, it’s hard to say yes. But I do feel very lucky and I’m very pleased to win this award.”

“Professing Sculpture: Ron Pederson and Seven Students From Three Decades” will be displayed in the AMC Thursday, Oct. 2 through Friday, Nov. 14. The artists to be featured alongside Pederson are: Amy Sharp, Ben Pederson, Jamie Watson, Joyce Recker, Lee Bowen, Lisa Burrows Dionne, Sr. Phyllis Mrozinski.

Ron Pederson’s philosophy on teaching art is simple, but will resonate forever: “In the end,” he says, “It’s all about love.”