2020 Retiring Faculty

Cynthia Cetlin

Professor of Fine Arts
(1987-2020)

Cynthia Cetlin, Professor of Fine Arts, began teaching jewelry and metals at OWU in the fall of 1987, retiring in 2020 after 33 years of service to the University. A native of Massachusetts, Professor Cetlin received her Master of Fine Arts in jewelry/metals from the State University of New York, New Paltz, and her Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Barnard College. While a student at Barnard, she also studied harp under Alice Chalifaux and Lucille Lawrence at the Manhattan School of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

Prior to taking up her post at OWU, Professor Cetlin taught advanced jewelry and metals at Southern Massachusetts University, now University of Massachusetts, North Dartmouth, and at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. She also received a Master of Arts in teaching and taught jewelry and metals for a time in the Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School and various art centers in New York City.

While at OWU, Professor Cetlin served for many years as the campus liaison to the New York Arts Program. She planned and led several travel-study programs abroad, taking students to Ireland and Portugal to study with notable artists. She also continued to develop new skills and expertise in media outside her primary areas of research, taking workshops and traveling on sabbaticals to Portugal and India to study papermaking, felting, and textile arts. Seeking ways to integrate her professional research with her teaching, Professor Cetlin developed seminars to share her new skills and knowledge with students at OWU.

Over her many years at OWU, Professor Cetlin’s work received widespread acclaim and recognition. In 2017 she received the Ruth Lantz Award for Excellence in Fiber for her piece titled “Felt Memory” in the Ohio Designer Craftsmen Best of 2017 exhibition at the Ohio Craft Museum in Columbus.

Reflective of the depth of her involvement with and mentorship of students, one of her students, Wyatt Hall, then a senior, was included also in the 2017 Ohio Designer Craftsmen exhibition, showing small-scale metal sculpture and jewelry created as part of the coursework from her metals class.

Many of her students over the years have continued their studies in graduate programs and have gone on to become artists in their own right, including Andrew Wilson, who received his MFA from the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently a visiting artist at OWU under the auspices of the Ross Art Museum and the Department of Fine Arts.

In addition to her teaching and professional practice, Professor Cetlin served on the boards of several community organizations, including the Ecumenical Youth Group in Delaware and Early Music in Columbus. Since retiring, Professor Cetlin has kept up her exploration of fiber arts, particularly wet felting in a sculptural and wearable context, and she is enjoying the time to create objects, experiment, and research. This summer she plans to continue her studies in natural indigo dying.