Mary and Dank, 2008
Rachel Folsom (b. 1944)
Oil on panel
Collection of Rachel Folsom

“Mary and Dank” are the parents of artist Rachel Folsom, who grew up in Roosevelt. Mary Elting and Franklin “Dank” Folsom were authors; together they wrote more than 125 children’s books. They moved from Manhattan to Roosevelt in 1949 and lived there until 1971. In 1986, Dank marched from California to Washington, D.C., as part of the Great Peace March for Total Nuclear Disarmament along with 500 other peace activists. He co-wrote a book about the experience.

Rib Cage, 2017
Ani Rosskam (b. 1952)
Collage
Collection of Ani Rosskam and Bill Leech

Growing up in Roosevelt, with parents who were documentary photographers, and surrounded by other artists and musicians, gave Ani Rosskam the confidence to become an artist herself. “It was a very stimulating environment with late-night discussions on politics and art,” she has said. She describes Jonathan Shahn as being like a brother to her.

After earning a bachelor of fine arts at Temple University’s Tyler School of Fine Arts in Elkins Park, PA, in 1974, and spending time in Boston, Ani returned to Roosevelt because of its location between New York and Philadelphia. In her early career she painted murals for architect Michael Graves, and with her husband Bill Leech runs Rosskam & Leech Murals, an architectural rendering and mural painting business. Their clients have included the New Jersey State House and the Old Barracks in Trenton.

Study for Martin Luther King Jr., 2004
Jonathan Shahn (1938–2020)
Plaster
Collection of Jonathan Shahn Sculpture

Jonathan Shahn was one of 40 artists commissioned by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Transit Arts Committee to produce work for the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. This plaster bust and accompanying drawings were done in preparation for the series of panels at the Martin Luther King Drive Station in Jersey City and chronicle events in the civil rights movement. They have captions like “Attacked by Dogs” and “Beaten Unconscious” and “Arrest of Dr. King.” One plaque shows the faces of people killed during the Civil Rights Movement. The list of 37 starts with “George Lee, 52, Shot in Face, May 7, 1955” and ends with the assassination of Dr. King. Other panels illustrate “The Right to Vote,” “A Seat on the Bus,” and “March on Washington.”

Red Painting - flowers - buildings etc., 2009
Bill Leech (b. 1952)
Acrylic on canvas
Collection of Ani Rosskam and Bill Leech

Born in Oskaloosa, Kansas, Bill Leech moved to Roosevelt after meeting his wife, Roosevelt native Ani Rosskam, at the Skowhegan School of Art in Maine. From his Roosevelt studio his art career flourished, leading to museum and gallery exhibitions and a fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts in 1983. Reviewing a 1997 three-person show he shared with Ani and Jonathan Shahn at New York’s Simon Gallery, the New York Times wrote: “His imagery is mostly taken from the natural world (trees, flowers and the like) or the human figure (always male in the paintings here), but rather than being arranged into a naturalistic scene, his images are arrayed like pictograms in rows and columns.” Bill is also a musician who performs regularly in Roosevelt.

Back of Heads, flowers, turquoise, 2001
Bill Leech (b. 1952)
Acrylic on canvas
Collection of Ani Rosskam and Bill Leech

Self Portrait in Green Mirror, 2008
Rachel Folsom (b. 1944)
Oil on panel
Collection of Rachel Folsom

Little Black Shadow Man, 1988
Abby Shahn (b. 1940)
Gouache on paper
Collection of Paul and Sara Prestopino

Untitled
Abby Shahn (b. 1940)
Gouache on paper
Collection of Paul and Sara Prestopino

The daughter of Bernarda and Ben Shahn, Abby grew up in Roosevelt. She has been living and working in Maine since 1969 and has taught at Haystack School of Crafts, Maine College of Art, College of the Atlantic, and Thomaston State Prison.

George Nakashima, 1990-91
Jonathan Shahn (1938–2020)
Plaster
Collection of Jonathan Shahn Sculpture

Architect and furniture sculptor George Nakashima, who lived in nearby Solebury, Pennsylvania, was a good friend of the Shahn family. An anecdote told by Nakashima’s daughter, Mira, recalls when Ben and Bernarda purchased a Nakashima table at his studio, they drove it home in their convertible with the top down. It was in the middle of winter, and Nakashima loaned Bernarda the World War I wool army hat that Mira remembers her father wearing when their family was incarcerated in an internment camp in Idaho.

Ben and George began to collaborate. Nakashima created beautiful frames for some of Shahn’s prints which he then sold in the New Hope studio. In the 1960s Shahn designed a mosaic for a wall of a new building Nakashima was constructing. After Shahn’s passing in 1969, the maquette was sent to France where the concept was realized in memoriam.

Gregorio Prestopino
Jonathan Shahn (1938–2020)
Bronze
Collection of Sara and Paul Prestopino

For many years, Jonathan Shahn kept a studio in the original Jersey Homestead garment factory. Upon arriving, a visitor would encounter dozens of heads–works of sculpture in plaster, bronze, and other media. Many were modeled on Roosevelt residents, including this one of Gregorio Prestopino.