Valerie & Rick Beck Works

Valerie & Rick Beck
Rick and Valerie Beck both graduated from Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska in 1982, where Rick got his BA in Art and Val got her BA in Human Services Administration and Political Science. They began working together in glass in 1984.  After getting married in 1986 they went to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale to attend graduate school.  There, Rick worked on and received his Master’s Degree in Art.  Val worked on her Masters in Educational Psychology, but spent most of her time in the art department.  In 1989, they moved to the Appalachian Center for Crafts in Smithville, Tennessee.  Following a two year residency there, in 1991 they went to Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina for a three residency.  In 1994 they moved eight miles down the mountain to Spruce Pine, North Carolina where they bought a house and built a studio.