Maren Hassinger

Maren Hassinger is a renowned sculptor and educator, currently serving as Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), a role she has held for 20 years. She holds a B.A. in Sculpture from Bennington College and an M.F.A. in Fiber from UCLA. Her artistic practice merges natural and industrial materials, exploring themes of equality and humanity’s evolving relationship with nature.

Before joining MICA, Hassinger taught at SUNY Stony Brook. Her mentorship philosophy emphasizes listening to students’ aspirations, fostering independence, and supporting their creative passions. She credits her own mentors, including Bernard Kester and Isaac Witkin, for shaping her approach.

Hassinger’s work has been featured in major exhibitions such as Now Dig This!: Art of Black Los Angeles 1960–1980 and Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art. She has received prestigious awards from institutions like the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

In her final years at MICA, Hassinger reflects warmly on collaborative epiphanies during seminars and the program’s evolution from technical sculpture discourse to critical discussions on global societal conditions. She will retire having profoundly influenced generations of artists.