Bio
Heather Diacont Rinehart is an award winning artist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Early and enthusiastic encouragement in pursuing her creative interests sparked a lifelong relationship with art as a communicative tool. Through her paintings, Rinehart strives to combine a love of vivid imagery, science, history, and nature in her work, ultimately hoping to communicate a new perspective to her audience. An interest in exploring the parallels among humans, who so often feel separate from nature, and things, living and un-living, is pervasive in her work.
Rinehart works primarily in acrylics, but also uses oils, watercolor, gouache, and digital paint tools. Her art explores themes such as female identity, ecology and conservation, and the intersections of human culture and nature.
She exhibits her work regularly throughout the area, and her paintings have been shown in a variety of venues, including the National Liberty Museum, the Philadelphia Sketch Club, and Powell Lane Arts, among many others.
Rinehart is also a teaching artist and has brought visual arts programming to institutions and individuals, children as well as adults, throughout the Greater Philadelphia area since 2012. Organizations that she has worked with include Cheltenham Center for the Arts, Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center, Bartram’s Garden,Morris Arboretum, and The Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University.
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Skilled fine artist, excels in classic media and technique; specializing in contemporary narrative and figurative painting. Teaching artist with years of experience in writing accessible arts curricula for children and adults.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center - Curriculum Director, Instructor
Manayunk Arts Festival - Judge, 2023 - 2024
Camp Anglewood -Art instructor, grades PreK - 8
Bartram’s Garden - Artist’s Workshops spotlighting varied topics such as animal anatomy, botanical illustration, mixed media design, and drawing and painting for adults and children, bringing the historic significance of the property to light for guests, and promoting an interest in the growth of the Bartram mission
Cheltenham Center for the Arts - Figure Drawing Open Studio Monitor, Drawing Instructor, Painting Instructor, Artist in Residence 2023-2024
University of the Arts - Teaching Through Primary Sources
Partnered with UArts to bring project based learning as continuing education for local teachers. Projects were completed on site at varying venues within the context of historical documents and experiences.
The College of New Jersey - project based programming to supplement student work through the lens of historic botanical illustration
Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University - facilitator for Arts Elective encouraging med students to approach problem solving from an artistic perspective, and using various materials, find respite from analytical thinking and academic rigor.
Mt. Airy Homeschooling Co-op - a variety of classes for elementary, middle, and high school students centered on hands-on activities that teach visual arts, history, and science. Classes include figure drawing, character design, botanical illustration, painting, art history.
Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania- Illustrated Nature Journaling
The Bridge, PHMC - Painting classes for at-risk youth
The Woodlands - Bird Anatomy for Artists
Private Lessons for Adults and Youth
RECENT EXHIBITIONS
Gallery 220, Havre de Grace Arts Collective
451 Rhawn Gallery
Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center - Solo Exhibition Featured Artist, Schuylkill Valley Journal - June 2024
Cheltenham Center for the Arts - Resident Artists’ Exhibition - May 2024
Settlement Music School, Willow Grove, PA - December 2023 Solo Exhibition
Manayunk Roxborough Art Center, juried show - October 2023
National Liberty Museum, Phila., PA - 2020 -2024 Philly Loves Bowie Week Exhibit; 2020 - Philadelphia’s Freedom
Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center, Phila., PA - 2022 - 2024, Ongoing
Cheltenham Center for the Arts, Cheltenham, PA - 2016 - 2025, Annual Members’ Show, Annual Juried Painting Show
Powell Lane Arts, Collingswood, NJ - 2022-2023, Annual Juried Show; 2022, Changelings; 2022 Small Works Show; 2023 Art Fair 14C
Philadelphia Sketch Club, Phila., PA - 2015-2019 - Art of the Flower Exhibition, 2022 - Small Oils Show
State Museum of PA, Harrisburg, PA - 2021 - Art of the State
Speakeasy Gallery, Boonton, NJ - 2014 - 2018 various exhibitions
Bartram’s Garden, Phila., PA - 2017 Solo Exhibition
COMMISSIONS
Bartram’s Garden - Botanical Paintings to be awarded to honorees at Twilight in the Garden event
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital - customized tribute albums for annual galas.
Doctors Community Hospital - Promotional materials, Lanham, MD
Various painting commissions for private collectors
PUBLICATIONS
2024 Schuylkill Valley Journal, featured artist, Summer 2024 edition
2020 Direct Art Magazine for “Global Meltdown” exhibit
2013 Scientific Illustration of a new species for publication “Ecology of Center City, Philadelphia” by Kenneth D. Frank
EDUCATION
Art Institute of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
1997 - 1999
Associate Arts - Media Arts
Graduated with honors
Studied under American painters William Martone and Alan Pagenhardt
ORGANIZATIONS
Cheltenham Center for the Arts, member, Artist in Residence 2023 - 2024
Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center, Board of Directors
Mt. Airy Homeschooling Cooperative, President of the Board 2018/2019
AWARDS
Artessa Alliance Award - Cheltenham Center for the Arts, 2024
David R. Hunt Award - Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center, 2023
Award of Merit - Powell Lane Arts, 2023
Cheltenham Printmaker’s Guild Award - Cheltenham Center for the Arts, 2021