Chesterwood, the summer home, studio and gardens of the foremost 20th C. sculptor, Daniel Chester French, announces Gabrielle Trom as the inaugural recipient of the National Sculpture Society’s Dexter Jones Affiliated Artist Residency.

The one-month residency, which began on October 1, gives Trom a place to live on the grounds in a building that served as French’s “lower studio,” now a cottage called the Meadowlark, and provides access to all the buildings, grounds and collections. The award is designed to be given to an emerging sculptor working in bas-relief.

The grant is funded by an endowment in memory of Dexter Jones, past Fellow of the National Sculpture Society with additional funding from Chesterwood’s Lee M. Weiser Memorial Fund in support of a sculptor-in-residence.

Gabrielle Trom trained at the Art Academy in St. Paul, Minnesota and continued her studies in drawing, painting and sculpture at Bethel University. In 2016, she began her education in the academic methods of figurative drawing and sculpture at the Barcelona Academy of Art in Spain, and returned in 2019 to complete her studies and teach. About her National Sculpture Society affiliated residency at Chesterwood,  Trom remarked: “The opportunity to work in the former studio of Daniel Chester French is an honor and I eagerly look forward to spending many hours exploring the woods, landscape and views that inspired him as an artist.”

While in residence Trom will have several open studio days and conduct a relief modeling demonstration.