Biography
Lloyd Menard was born in 1938. He received his MFA from the University of Illinois and his BFA from the University of Nebraska, Omaha. After a brief period teaching high school in Dubuque, Iowa, Menard became a faculty member in the Art Department at the University of South Dakota in 1972. He remained at this institution for over thirty years teaching printmaking, papermaking and drawing. He retired at the end of the spring semester, 2005, to become a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Art.
During his tenure at USD, Menard originated Frogman’s Print & Paper Workshops, a significant printmaking workshop. He also founded Frogman’s Press & Gallery in Beresford, South Dakota. This gallery “exhibits all types of media from regionally, nationally, and internationally known artists.” Menard curated over 40 exhibitions since the gallery began in 1994. His own art work has been shown in over 350 juried and invitational exhibitions and is included in many college, university, corporate and museum collections. He expanded the printmaking facilities at USD and taught over 40 USD alumni who, in turn, teach in colleges and universities. Menard also established an active Visiting Artist Program while teaching at the University.
In 2005, Menard received the College Art Association’s “Distinguished Teaching of Art Award.” It is presented to an artist “of distinction who has developed a philosophy or technique of instruction based on his or her experience as an artist; has encouraged his or her students to develop their own individual abilities, and/or has made some contribution to the body of knowledge loosely called theory and understood as embracing technical, material, aesthetic and perceptual issues.” Menard was especially commended for his role in bringing the larger world of art to his students who were living in “remote Vermilion, South Dakota.”
Source of Biography
University of South Dakota website;
College Art Association website