While a student at Augustana College (now Augustana University), John Peters was enrolled in a design course taught by art professor Ogden Dalrymple.
At the end of the semester, Dalrymple showed a medallion to the class, telling them they might receive it one day if they excelled in their artistic endeavors.
“And I thought ‘that would be so cool,’” Peters said.
That medallion is the Harold Spitznagel Medal for Achievement in Art. It is given to artists who demonstrate the highest standards of excellence at Augustana and is bestowed only occasionally.
“It turns out that a couple of my best friends that I went to school with both got the award when they were students, and I didn’t get it,” Peters said.
“But I have always thought that this is the highest honor an Augustana person can get in the arts.”
John Peters’ sculptures. Click to enlarge. Scroll down for description.
Peters graduated from Augustana in 1976 and later earned a master’s degree in fine arts with a sculpture emphasis from the University of Illinois.
His artwork is displayed in Sioux Falls churches, the Sanford Children’s Hospital, Sanford Heart Hospital, the Minnehaha County Courthouse, Sioux Falls Environmental Office, and Augustana’s Mikkelsen Library.
Peters currently works at Augustana as the Eide/Dalrymple Gallery and Hovland Center for Liturgical Arts coordinator, and he is an instructor of sculpture & 3D design.
If Peters was disappointed in not winning the Spitznagel medal as an Augustana student, that is a distant memory, as he has received the rare distinction of receiving it as a faculty member.
Peters and Gracie Korstjens, a member of the Augustana Class of 2024, were awarded the medal during the opening reception of the Augustana Senior Show in April.
The medal is usually presented to Augustana students nearing graduation, so the recognition caught Peters off guard.
“I was really honored and humbled and surprised,” he said.
Only two other Augustana faculty members have received the medal since it was first awarded in 1959.
Korstjens double-majored in art and biology at Augustana, and she will attend graduate school at Tufts University to pursue a master of fine arts with a printmaking emphasis.
Receiving the award was personally significant in a variety of ways.
“For starters, it validated all of the work that I had been putting into my practice throughout my time at Augustana,” Korstjens said. “It also serves as a reminder of my community that helped build me into the individual and artist that I am – most of which were my peers and the faculty that I worked alongside.”
Korstjens is also honored to be included with artists who previously received the award.
“Overall, the Spitznagel was not only recognition of my accomplishments, but also the accomplishments of my network around me,” she said.
Harold T. Spitznagel, the namesake of the award, established a one-man architecture practice in Sioux Falls in 1930.
Many of his numerous friendships and business relationships were built at Augustana, where Spitznagel’s first project at Augie involved a master planning effort in 1945.
Spitznagel’s connection to the art world and his friendship with Augustana art professors Dalrymple, Palmer Eide, Robert Aldern, and Carl Grupp provided the inspiration for an award to recognize artists for their outstanding achievements.
“I really admire Spitznagel for his interest in combining art with architecture,” Peters said.
TSP, Inc. – the firm Spitznagel started, is now a 100 percent employee-owned multidisciplinary leader with architecture, engineering, planning, and interior design expertise within a single company.
The connection between Augustana University and TSP has deepened over the decades, as we have collaborated on more than 150 projects both large and small, from a renovation of the school’s bowling alley, multiple campus master plans, the Froiland Science Complex, Hamre Recital Hall, and Wagoner Residence Hall.
(Lead image left to right: Tim Jensen, TSP; Gracie Korstjens; John Peters; and Chase Kramer, TSP.)
Images of John Peters’ sculptures
Left: “J. Henry P. Boos Tower” 16″ x 10.75″ x 6″ mixed metals. Futuristic architecture. The title mixes the John Henry Peters with the Boos company that created dental castings.
Right: “Peganinx” 42″x 21″ x 25″ basswood, leather, horsehair, metals, plastic, assorted woods, enamel. A surreal architectural structure that combines the imagery of Pegasus the Sphinx.