Rosemary Joy Glidden, NYSS MFA 2023, RBF Studio Artist-in-Residence 2024-2026

The past two years I have been blessed with the opportunity of a studio space as the Rosemarie Beck Foundation’s Studio Artist-in-Residence. This quiet meditative space, on the sixth floor of the Kenkeleba house, has been my painting refuge and retreat. The foundation’s four large windows have allowed me to paint with natural light, and enabled hours of staring outside observing clouds, the movements of birds and bugs, and inspired me to paint the view out the window using the black frames to explore geometry in my images. 

A unique aspect of my residency at the foundation was access to almost the entirety of Rosemarie Beck’s life work, from sketches, to monumental oil paintings, clay maquettes, and boxes of completed sketchbooks, painting props, and her personal library of books relating to painting. As a young artist this has been particularly exciting, I have learned a lot from Beck’s crafty resourcefulness. I have been especially emboldened by her use of cardboard as a painting and collage substrate and have been experimenting with collage and recycled materials as a way to draft images. I am honored to paint using Rosemarie Beck’s easel, and have used her vase to display flowers. 

The first show I curated at the foundation was Tragedy and Magic: Rosemarie Beck’s Tempest. This show allowed me to immerse myself in the romantic comedy of Shakespeare’s play The Tempest through Beck’s unique eye and interpretation. I was especially struck by how Beck used images drawn from her time on Martha’s Vineyard to create a reimagined sunny landscape for her rendition of The Tempest. 

In September 2025 I held a mid-residency show of my own small works, Looking Out, Looking In, primarily done from life and on site, either at the foundation or on my own travels. In January 2026 I curated a show of Rosemarie Beck’s Travel Sketches and Studies. The 8.5 x 14 inch paintings in the show were all done on shirt boards, intended for use in packing shirts, that Beck had gotten for a cheap price. On the studio wall I have post-its with notes of inspiration or reminders. I enjoy pretending that some are from Beck herself, directly above my easel is “you can get anywhere from anywhere,” a reminder that any starting point can lead you to great places. Above my desk is a reminder to “protect the sacred space,” the studio. 

I am incredibly grateful to the Rosemarie Beck Foundation for hosting me in 2024-2026. I never imagined that I would ever have a studio in Manhattan, especially one so special as Rosemarie Beck’s. 

To Pay Attention: Recent Paintings by Rosemary Joy Glidden
Rosemarie Beck Foundation, Kenkeleba House
214 East 2nd. Street New York, NY 10009
June 5 – July 31, 2026

The Rosemarie Beck Foundation presents a solo show by Rosemary Joy Glidden, culminating her two year studio residency from 2024-2026. This exhibition includes tenderly rendered oil paintings and watercolors, capturing quiet moments and movements in the city. The exhibition will be open by appointment, Monday–Saturday.

Rosemarie Beck Foundation Studio Artist-in-Residence

The Rosemarie Beck Foundation has partnered with the New York Studio School to offer NYSS MFA graduates the opportunity to participate in the Rosemarie Beck Foundation Studio Artist-in-Residence. The Rosemarie Beck Foundation (RBF) is a nonprofit organization that honors and promotes the values, ideals and combined artistic-pedagogic-literary output of the artist and former NYSS teacher Rosemarie Beck (1923-2003). The RBF Collection – housed in Beck’s former studio space – contains an extraordinary selection of Beck’s paintings, textiles and works on paper. The RBF strives to inspire and support serious artists by providing them with an ideal space in which to cultivate and develop their own artwork, while learning and applying collections management and exhibition skills in the RBF Collection. The program offers studio privileges and immersive access to the Rosemarie Beck Foundation Collection and Archives to a qualified painter who has applied for the position and been selected, following review, by the RBF Board.