2024 Honorary Artist: Susan M. Ward
“Art allows me to reflect on my own life
and lets me express my interpretation of current events and even my own mortality. When I create a work of art, whether it is a drawing, print, or sculpture, I bring into each piece a part of my life’s journey.”
– Susan M Ward
Memorial to Scott Hatt April 23, 1957 ~ October 26, 2021
Scott was an artist, specializing in collage art. His work in the 1990’s focused on the creation of prints of hand-colored collage pieces. In the period 2000 to 2008 he developed the computer skills needed to work in digital collage and graphic design and taught these subjects at IU South Bend from 1998 to 2003. After 2008 Scott concentrated on works that combined collage with acrylic painting, and also created many works that combined collage with box constructions. In 2005 Scott opened the Spurious Fugitive Gallery in Downtown South Bend, curating and mounting monthly shows featuring cutting-edge local and national artists. He closed the gallery in 2009 due to the financial crisis. Using social media, he continued to collaborate with American and International collage artists until his health no longer permitted these activities.
Among his achievements as an artist were: winning first prize in a competition sponsored by the South Bend Museum of Art for his work “South Bend Box” (2008); and invited participation is many local and national gallery shows, including works exhibited in San Diego, CA, St. Petersberg, FL, Univ of Massachesetts, Amherst, and many others. Scott was also an amateur cellist, and participated in 100 musical improvisations with PLATO & the Western Tradition, a local improvisation ensemble, often inserting interesting and sometimes controversial texts into the textures of improvisation.