KINGSTON, R.I. — April 16, 2010 — The University of Rhode Island will hold a reception to honor the work of sculptor Peter Diepenbrock and the Art in Public Places Program that helped to bring his work to the University.

The event will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, April 26 at Lippitt Hall, 5 Lippitt Rd., which is the location of the artist’s 14-foot bronze sculpture, Torsion III. The ceremony and reception are free and open to the public.

URI President David M. Dooley, Vice President for Administration and Finance Robert A. Weygand, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Executive Director Randall Rosenbaum, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Winifred E. Brownell, senior honors student Armine Tahmassian, and the artist will speak at the ceremony.

Torsion III, designed and fabricated by the Jamestown artist, was installed at Lippitt Hall in September 2009. The sculpture was commissioned as part of the state’s One Percent for Public Art Program, a program administered by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, which allocates a portion of all state construction funding to provide artwork for the new and renovated buildings. The legislative intent of the Percent for Art program, according to public law 42-75.2-2, is to create a more humane environment: one of distinction, enjoyment, and pride for all citizens.

Diepenbrock’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Bridgewater State College, the Newport Art Museum, the Hunter Gallery, St. George’s School, and the Lenore Gray Gallery. Other commissions he has received are the 9/11 Monument at the R.I. Statehouse, Undulating Flurries for One Exeter Plaza in Boston, Infinity III for the town of East Greenwich, and numerous commissions for private and business locations in Mass., R.I. and Calif.

He is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design where he earned two degrees, a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Industrial Design. He has achieved a distinguished record of accomplishment as one of the region’s most prolific and up-and-coming contemporary sculptors. With his wife, jewelry designer Didi Suydam, he owns Didi Suydam Contemporary on Bannister’s Wharf in Newport.

Lippitt Hall, one of the University’s oldest buildings, was reopened in 2009 after an $8.9 million, basement-to-roof renovation, which modernized the building systems and interior spaces, while restoring the building’s exterior in keeping with its Tudor-style architecture. Lippitt is home to URI’s Honors Program and Department of Mathematics.