Selections from the University Art Gallery Collections: Julia Roecker

May 13- August 9, 2024

This exhibition is a collection of works that were donated to the Art Department during the tenure of Dr. Barron Hirsch who started the University Art Gallery in 1970.

Mrs. Julia Roberts Roecker (1887-1988) completed her studies at the Art Institute of Chicago and returned home to teach art at Saginaw High School. In 1943, after her husband’s death, she accepted a position of chair of the Alma College Art Department, a post she held until her retirement in 1955. At Alma she taught all the studio art, commercial art, art history and both elementary and secondary art methods. In 1956, she was appointed director of the Saginaw Art Museum where she provided strong leadership until 1966 when she again retired, this time to teach art to private students and work in her studio on Midland Road. As a painter and printmaker, she experimented with many styles from traditional scene painting to near abstraction. She worked in oils, pastels, watercolor, relief printing, silkscreen and etching.

This exhibition honors the memory of an important Saginaw artist who contributed immensely to the cultural life of the Saginaw area.