Fred Stern
The Artist (a Brief Biography)

Fred Stern is a recognized innovator in environmental art. He has served as Associate Professor of Sculpture and Engineering at Pratt Institute, and as Associate Professor of Visual Arts at New York University, the University of Maryland and The Instituto De Allende in Mexico.

Stern has received five major awards from the National Endowment for The Arts and grants from many local and private agencies to support his work. He was the first artist to receive an Art in Public Places Individual Artist Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, for his rainbow work. 

He has created over 40 Natural Man Made Rainbows as large as 2000 feet across for events in support of humanitarian causes. His rainbows have graced the over New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, Austin, Salt Lake City, Santa Fe and Silver City. In 1992 Stern created a series of rainbows at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. In 1995 he presented his rainbow work, "Keshet Sheket," a Holocaust Memorial, as the opening piece for the Eutopia Festival in Potsdam Germany. In 1998 he presented his work at the Stockholm Water Festival and created a moon rainbow for terminally ill children at Camp Sundown in New York. He recently created a rainbow in Juarez, Mexico for Native Peoples plea for a removal of a nuclear dumpsite from sacred land.

In 1996 in conjunction with Japanese National Television he accomplished a long-term dream of creating a rainbow over the United Nation's Building in New York. In this monumental piece he raised what he sees, as the planet's or God's flag above the flags of all nations, establishing a visual metaphor for global unity and world peace.

In 1999 he opened the Hague Appeal for Peace, in Holland with a natural rainbow.  He then made both sun and moon rainbows for an Israeli Palestinian Peace conference in Israel. This was followed by a rainbow in front of the Palestinian Headquarters in Gaza.  This past summer he created rainbows at Trinity Site in New Mexico, for Liberation Day in Holland and for THe Relay for Life in Naples Florida.

An artificial rainfall is created by fire trucks or fire boats, pumping water into the air. These water drops refract the sunlight and establish the rainbow. A computer program determines the optimal time, position and spray parameters for rainbow generation.

Although his rainbow work began as Conceptual Sculptural Pieces they have become Public Art works serving as a visual metaphor for peace and global unity. As an artist Stern combines a visual sensibility with an ethical responsibility in the realization of his pieces.  His work has been featured in the newly released book, The Book of Rainbows.

Stern has coordinated groups of artists in the presentation of environmental works for The International Sculpture Conference in Washington, D.C. and The Primer Gran Festival De Dos Culturas in Mexico. He served as an advisor and participant to the New York Annual Avant Garde Festival for more than 10 years.