Missy Savard ’85

Achieving in the Art World

Missy Savard ’85 followed the footsteps of her brother, Rev. John Savard, S.J.,’78, to Fairfield University and graduated as the first fine arts major to ever win a Student Achievement Award from the College of Arts and Sciences. Nearly four decades later, her lifelong love affair with art continues.

Entranced by the dance of light on salt marsh waters or the afternoon sun beckoning long shadows down the front steps of a Maine cottage, Savard is a respected artist who has shown her luminous paintings and monotypes across the United States. A member of both Connecticut’s Silvermine Guild of Artists in New Canaan and Wilson Avenue Loft Artists in Norwalk, her paintings have garnered numerous accolades, including from renowned artists Robert Cottingham and Paul Cadmus. Peter Rathbone, a former senior vice president and director of American Art at Sotheby’s, hailed her monotypes as “reminiscent of Whistler – with excellent use of color and textures.”

Perhaps more importantly, Savard has spent recent years administering Silvermine Arts Center’s Art Partners Outreach, which provides curriculum-based studio art classes taught by visiting professional artists to an estimated 2,000 children in under-resourced urban schools in Bridgeport, Norwalk, and Stamford each year. As an outreach coordinator and a teacher, Savard strives to foster creative thinking and self-esteem through transformative programs that build community while promoting education. Art Partners Outreach classes provide muchneeded life skills while aiming to capture students’ imaginations and inspire the next generation of artists and innovators.

“For many students, art can be an entry point to learning,” said Savard. “They become engaged in subjects through I look at my paintings as meditations; hoping that when people see them, they are transported to a place that is familiar and easy for them. We can all learn from art by participating in it. — Missy Savard ’85 “ ” creative problem-solving while exploring new knowledge. Art offers an outlet where children can discover unique ways to look at the world.”

While an undergraduate at Fairfield, a host of luminaries in the University’s arts community nurtured Savard’s talent — from art instructors Jane Sutherland, Peter Michael Gish, and Palko Lukacs, to professor of art history and visual culture Philip Eliasoph, PhD, who currently serves as special assistant to the president for arts and culture.

Dr. Eliasoph praised the variety in Savard’s impressive portfolio. “In her own manner, she tips her brush into Sargent’s bravura, Hopper’s sobriety, and even de Kooning’s surging melodies,” he said. “The delicacy of her plein air tonalities and atmospheric luminosity, bring us to a wonderful sense of meditative oneness. We sense her gentle manner through the heartbeats of her stroking brush.”

The Savard family’s roots in art—and service—run deep. Missy and Fr. John’s father, Harold Savard FP’44, was a lifelong artist who served as Fairfield Prep’s “yearbook cartoonist” during his high school years and created acclaimed largescale steel sculptures in his retirement years. Their mother, Marilyn, was a social worker with the city of Bridgeport before raising her family, and their brother Tom is a local artist. Fr. John Savard, S.J., who currently serves as University chaplain and interim director of Campus Ministry at Fairfield, is a painter. “There was a sense of freedom to sit down and draw and paint,” he said of their upbringing.

While she enjoys exploring other media “because everything you do adds to the next,” Missy Savard said she’s most at home with the two-dimensional possibilities of paper, stretched canvas, and wood panel. Having recently shown her work at George Billis Galleries in downtown Fairfield and in New York City, Savard considers herself lucky to be able to make a career of sharing art with students and others.

“I feel it is a privilege to paint. With my art, I strive to share a silence that invites reflective contemplation. I look at my paintings as meditations; hoping that when people see them, they are transported to a place that is familiar and easy for them. We can all learn from art by participating in it.”

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