As a first generation American student, Robert Minervini has never taken for granted the opportunity to receive an education. A Clifton, New Jersey native, Minervini grew up right down the street from Montclair State\u2019s campus. While as a kid he was intimidated by the idea of attending college, the campus\u2019 presence in his backyard left a lasting impression on his life and is ultimately where his passion as an artist grew. He has since earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in fine arts with a concentration in installation and conceptual art from Montclair State and a master\u2019s of fine arts degree from the New York Academy of Art in Tribeca, New York. He has constructed numerous sculptures for display around the world and in 2006 founded Art Emphasis Designs LLC, a New Jersey business dealing in both commercial and high-end residential metal design.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarting your own business is a big investment \u2013 one that takes risk. But it was Montclair State that taught me to believe in myself and encouraged me to go after my dream,\u201d says Minervini.<\/p>\n
Hard work and taking risks isn\u2019t new to Minervini. His father Tony, also an artist, started their family business, Artistic Metal Works, which was a constant part of Minervini\u2019s adolescence. Seeing firsthand the success that his father was able to achieve fuelled him to take the next step when establishing his own business. It was important to Minervini that his business focus on the artistic aspect of building. As an undergraduate student, he became heavily involved in the art design department and spent many late nights experimenting creativity with friends and classmates. In 1996 he won a sculpture competition offered by the University\u2019s art department and created a stainless and painted steel sculpture that was installed on campus outside of Life Hall and remains standing today. That same year he had two sculptures selected to be exhibited in part with a University art show in Graz, Austria.<\/p>\n
In March 2015, Minervini completed his latest project commemorating the 50th anniversary of the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Working alongside Alabama natives Barrett Bailey and Jon Cook, the three teamed up to help the nation remember the past, by creating two original sculptures. Over the course of the past 12 months, they won a national commission from the city of Montgomery for the design and creation of the two sculptures and worked with a team of local Montgomery residents to create this project. On March 5, Montgomery held a remembrance of the Civil Rights Movement which brought in important notable leaders including several past presidents and President Obama.<\/p>\n
Minervini\u2019s goal has always been to pursue creating art and credits his peers and professors at Montclair State for helping him to find his way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone chooses to become an artist, they have to have courage,\u201d he says. \u201cI knew I didn\u2019t want to just be an architectural metal worker, which is what I grew up doing in my dad\u2019s business. I wanted to use my education and experiences to create a career that would allow me to fulfill my creative drive and at the same time, earn a salary and support my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now when he visits campus he enjoys seeing the growth that has taken place since he was a student and is proud to be a part of a University that he remembers as a being a small campus with big dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President, Art Emphasis Designs LLC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":114508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-77_alumni-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14508"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206669,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14508\/revisions\/206669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}