Richard graduated cum laude from Brooklyn College with Economics Honors in 1968. He was awarded a fellowship for graduate study at Brown University, where he received his Master's degree in Economics. He studied at the PhD level for two years with The Graduate Faculty of The New School for Social Research, and left academia to pursue his interests in bookbinding, art and music. He has remained active in both theoretical and applied economics. You can read his article for the Spring, 1999 Brown Economic Review, Fear and Greed in the 24-hour Economy.
artist & curator
In 1974 he had his first one-man show in New York City at the Zabriskie Gallery on 57th Street. That year he founded The Center for Book Arts in a storefront on Manhattan's Bleecker Street. It is a not-for-profit facility with education, publication and workshop programs, and has produced
hundreds of exhibitions. Richard curated and designed the exhibition Book Arts in the USA in 1990, which was circulated through Africa and
Latin America by the Arts America program of the USIA. In 1999 the Center bought a 5,000 sq. ft. floor at 28 West 27th Street.
composer & musician
The Allan Stone Gallery mounted an exhibition of
Minsky's work in many media in 1981, where Richard's band Old Man Rivet and the Rivetheads performed his composition
I Wanna be Riveted at the opening. He has played the violin
since 1955, and composes at the MIDI keyboard. In 1972 he wrote and produced the music for Gerald Jackson's Adventures In Ku-Ta-Ba Wa-Do. The 40 minute record was the focus of several radio programs in the early 70's, and was the basis of a live performance at Ornette Coleman's Artist House in 1974.
honors
Richard has received many fellowships and awards of recognition. In 1978 he was named US/UK Bicentennial Fellow by The National Endowment for the Arts and The British Council. In 1994 HarperCollins Publishers hosted the exhibition
Richard Minsky: A 25 Year Retrospective.
In 2004 Yale acquired
The Richard Minsky
Archive, and in 2010 mounted an
exhibition of 50 years of
Minsky's work.
references:
The Who's Who of Emerging Leaders in America
Dictionary of International Biography
Who's Who in American Art
Who's Who in the East
Men of Achievement
Resume includes a bibliography and a list of museums
that own his work.