Henderson native David Wischer recently spent three weeks in Antwerp, Belgium, working alongside faculty and staff at the Royal Academy of Arts as a Fulbright Specialist.
Wischer, an associate professor of digital and print media in the School of Art and Visual Studies at the University of Kentucky, said part of the reason he was there was to start working on a joint master’s program that UK is planning in which it will team up with the Royal Academy as well as universities in Portugal and Poland. He said the program will allow a student to spend a semester at each of the four institutions.
Wischer, a 1994 Henderson County High School graduate, also had the opportunity to lead workshops at the Royal Academy and collaborate with instructors at the school, he said.
Much of Wischer’s work at UK focuses on screen printing, and while at the Royal Academy, he worked in the school’s printing department. He gave an artist talk, conducted two workshops—one in CMYK screen printing and another on the animation process—and also made a couple of prints while there, he said.
Wischer said he after he earned tenure at UK in 2024, he decided to apply to be a Fulbright Specialist.
“Getting tenure gave me a lot of confidence,” he said, adding that after he got tenure, he thought, “Why not try something else?”
The life of an artist, even a tenured university professor, is filled with rejection when applying for grants, getting into shows and more, and so when he was awarded the Fulbright Specialist, Wischer was understandably excited.
And now as a Fulbright Specialist, he believes that more doors will open. There are connections available with other Fulbright Specialist alumni, he said. He said he’ll be looking for other Fulbright opportunities to apply for in the coming years.
The Fulbright Program offers a variety of exchanges and scholarships for university faculty and researchers, as well as students and professionals. One of the well-known programs is Fulbright Scholars, which allows faculty or researchers to go abroad to teach or do research for a variety of lengths. The Fulbright Specialist program sends academics or professionals abroad for a length of two to six weeks.
He spent time away from the Royal Academy looking at artwork in Antwerp’s museums. Wischer said Belgium’s art scene is eccentric that some may call “over the top” and for him was “really cool.” Also in his short time there, he got involved in the art scene, taking in different openings that he learned of from people he met.
The language of instruction at the Royal Academy is English, and students come from all over Europe and the world, he said. Because of that, there were only a few hiccups while in Belgium—one being on-the-fly adjustments to the different keyboard layout and functions as he was giving a presentation, which he said his students got a chuckle out of. Another was having to use translation functions on his cell phone to follow cooking instructions on food packages at the AirBnB where he stayed.
Wischer is the son of Cathy and the late Jerry Wischer.
