Awards

IU Indianapolis Spirit of Philanthropy Award - 1998

About Robert Berkshire

Robert Berkshire was born in 1932. An Indianapolis native, he was a scholarship student at the John Herron Art Institute, graduating in 1954 with a diploma in fine arts. A Fulbright Fellowship funded his year-long studies in Italy. He earned a master’s degree in fine arts from Florida State University in 1958 and returned to Indianapolis to teach at his undergraduate alma mater. He remained a beloved member of the Herron faculty until his retirement in 1996.

Berkshire painted with a verve that leapt from the canvas. In a 2002 article about an upcoming one-man show, he said “I’m interested in the space in a painting. As the images I’m working with in a painting become real to me, I like to be able to see what I’m doing by moving through the space that surrounds them. I don’t want to see just what’s facing me, but also what’s all around and behind it.”

He painted the way he lived: Large. He became one of Indianapolis' best-known painters, and was content with that distinction.

Through his estate planning, Berkshire made one of the first gifts to the capital campaign that moved the school from 16th and Pennsylvania streets to its new home on the IUPUI campus in 2005. The Robert B. Berkshire gallery was named in his honor.