Biography
Douglas Allen Eckheart was born on November 6, 1943, in Fargo, ND. He earned his BA from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, in 1965 and his MFA at Bowling Green University in 1968. He did additional study at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and the Vermont Studio Center in 1991, Instituto Allende in Mexico in 1976 and 1973, and the Art Students League in 1975. He taught at Luther College starting in 1968, becoming a professor emeritus in 2009. Eckheart has also been a visiting lecturer and artist in residence at the University of Malta in Mdina, Malta in 1997. He served as an instructor of art at Waldorf College in Forest City, IA, from 1967-68 and was the co-director and instructor of art at the South Bear School in Highlandville, IA, from 1971-75.
Eckheart has been a frequent leader of tour groups throughout the continental United States, Europe, New Zealand, the Scandinavian countries, and Canada. He was the director of the Scandinavia and Baltic Program at the College of Lillehammer in Norway in 2006 and director of the Malta Abroad Program for Luther College in 1997.
Eckheart has presented in over 75 one-person exhibits and 40 group shows. While many of these were located in the Midwest, they also were scheduled in New York City as well as Norway and Malta. He has received numerous awards for his work from groups such as the Iowa Humanities Board and the Iowa Arts Council. His art was selected for the Iowa State Education Association art calendar in 2000 called and for Iowa Governor Terry Branstad’s Chrismas card in 1994.
He has led numerous workshops and been a speaker at institutes, conventions and programs. Eckheart has also been asked to judge at arts festivals, the Iowa State Fair, Vesterheim Museum in Decorah, and exhibitions at colleges and universities. He has been featured in numerous television and radio interviews. An article, “Getting the Show on the Road,” focusing on a traveling exhibition of landscapes was published in the 1995 issue of American Artist.
Eckheart’s art is part of a number of corporate and university collections including Thrivent Insurance Company, the University of Malta permanent collection, and the Northwest Bell Telephone Corporate Collection.
The Fine Arts Collection contains eight art works by Eckheart, three watercolor paintings, three oil paintings, and two ink drawings. All but one are landscapes, his preferred art subject area.
Source of Biography
Burgman-Mozonne, Terri. “Getting the Show on the Road,” American Artist. Vol. 59, No. 631 (February 1995), 65-70; http://www.eckheart.com