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For Rider senior Louis Esposito, room 353 in the Fine Arts Building, is a “home away from home.” It’s here, in Rider’s painting studio, that he connected with his desire to make art his life’s work and he joined a community of other students with that same commitment.

Esposito’s path to this sunny space filled with easels, paints and canvas wasn’t a direct one.  He entered Rider in 2011 as a business major, after learning about the University when his older brother was researching highly regarded business programs.  But one semester into his freshman year, he determined that business wasn’t for him.  But what should he do next?

“I’ve always been into art,” he said.  “But I never thought of art as something serious, as a career path.”

He shared his concerns with his freshman seminar leader, Eileen Gurwitz, and she suggested that he look at classes at Rider’s School of Fine and Performing Arts. After a bit of research, he decided to register for a drawing class with Professor Deborah Rosenthal. 

That first class was a challenge, he recalled.  “Making art as a profession isn’t easy,” he said, noting that Professor Rosenthal is a demanding teacher.  Accepting that challenge and realizing this was the path he wanted to follow, he took every drawing and painting class available to him and got to know other students who also took the arts seriously.  Last year he received an undergraduate student research grant to work closely with Rosenthal and study the work of the painter Balthus.  He also studied sculpture for two summers at the prestigious New York Studio School, further reinforcing his desire to pursue a career as an artist.

Two years ago he noticed that Rider didn’t have a club or organization for students who were interesting in making art or participating in higher-level arts activities.  To fill that gap, he and a few other students founded the С����Ƶ Art Society.  Advised by Professor Rosenthal, the Society has sponsored life-drawing sessions on campus and led trips to major museums in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., such as the Met, the Barnes Foundation and the National Gallery.  They’ve also visited with private collectors, attended New York City Ballet performances and exhibited their own work in Artworks’ Art All Day in Trenton.

Reflecting on the Society’s accomplishments and its future after he graduates and completes his term as its president in May, he said, “Art is a part of all of us.  I want to see it grow even more at Rider.  There are some very serious students joining the conversation.”

As for his own plans, he’ll show his paintings in a Senior Honors Thesis exhibit with fellow senior Olivia Immordino April 16 – 26 in the С����Ƶ Art Gallery.  This fall he’ll enter the New York Studio School’s MFA program, where he was awarded one of the school’s two named scholarships.  This rigorous program requires students to work in their discipline a minimum of 40 hours a week. 

“I’m really looking forward to spending every day concentrating only on my art,” he said, reflecting on the path that led him to this point in his life.  “There’s some serious, work going on at Rider.  I’m a result of that.  But it doesn’t come easy.”