Rhoda Holzer Memorial

Fine Arts Fund

About Rhoda

Beginning as a child growing up in Scarsdale, N.Y., Rhoda always showed a love and ability for art. In learning to create art, to draw, to paint, to illustrate, Rhoda expressed herself and her appreciation of nature. After high school, she earned a BFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. Later, already a talented abstract artist, she earned a certificate in Botanical Illustration from the New York Botanical Gardens where she went on to teach botanical illustration. Over the years, she had several solo exhibitions of her work, including exhibits of her botanical watercolors at the Greenwich Audubon Society and at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve.

Rhoda and her husband, Stuart, moved to Briarcliff Manor in 1975 and raised their three children there, all of whom graduated from Briarcliff High School. In the fall of 2015, Rhoda led a workshop for the Briarcliff High School AP Art students. She loved teaching art and sharing the creative experience, and especially enjoyed her time with the AP art class. It reminded her of her own time as a young art student learning to express herself through a creative medium.

About the Fund

The Rhoda Holzer Memorial Fine Arts Fund was established in 2016 to award an annual scholarship in Rhoda’s memor to a graduating fine arts student from Briarcliff High School. At that time, we had expressed the hope that we might be able to support fine arts programs for other young artists, and so, together with generous contributors Jill & Jay Bernstein, our family made a gift to the Tyler School of Art (at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA) to endow the Rhoda Psaty Holzer Memorial Painting Scholarship. This Painting Scholarship (which is entirely separate from the Fine Arts Scholarship at Briarcliff High School), makes an annual award to a deserving undergraduate Painting Major at the Tyler School. Furthermore, one of the beautiful new painting studio classrooms at Tyler was dedicated as the “Rhoda Psaty Holzer Painting Studio” on April 20, 2017, and a dedication plaque was installed at the Studio entrance.

Temple Today covered the dedication in a wonderful story that they posted on their website. We invite you to read the article and view a video of the dedication ceremony (video password: tyler).

We know that Rhoda would be honored - and, probably, a bit embarrassed - to learn that she is being remembered so significantly both in the community where she lived for over 40 years, and at the art school where she was free to study, to create, to paint, and to express herself in her artwork. We are so grateful for the generous contributions that have been made in Rhoda's memory, and for the loving remembrances of her.

Grant Awards

In April 2025, the 2024-2025 winners of the Rhoda Holzer Memorial Arts scholarship were announced during the Briarcliff High School Art Salon, held at Sleepy Hollow Country Club. Congratulations again to Samantha Anisman First Prize winner and Sernea Xu, Second Place winner. As all of the winners over the years have, both of their portfolios demonstrated the talent and creativity that Rhoda so loved to encourage in young artists.

(To learn more about the 2023 Art Salon, the first Salon post-Covid, we invite you to watch this short news story by News 12 Westchester.)

In addition to the Fine Arts Scholarships at BHS, each year the Rhoda Holzer Memorial Painting Scholarship is awarded to a Painting Major at Rhoda's alma mater, the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia. The 2025-2026 school year’s Painting Scholarship was awarded to Margaret Tresselt a senior Painting Major. In a letter addressed to our family, Margaret shared, “To me, this scholarship acknowledges and represents the countless hours of work and dedication that I channel into my education here at Tyler... I am interested in material exploration, specifically the production of organic pigments from native sedimentary rocks. My subject matter leans towards biomorphic abstraction and is formed through meditative and intuitive gestural marks." We are so pleased to be able to support Margaret as she completes her BFA this spring.

Congratulations to all of the 2025 awardees!

Margaret Thesselt, sourced pigment & oil on canvas	Samantha Anisman, oil on board	Serena Xu, photography
painting by Jesse Ramos, 2024	artwork by Sora Marable	artwork by Allison Chu
digital design, 2023	Oil paint, 2023	Oil on board, 2022
Oil on canvas, 2023	oil on paper, 2022	Ben Young, 2022
Oliver Canales Greenwood, 2022	Sarah Renz, 2022	Gannon Blair, 2022
Paintings by M. Wolf	Rond de Point (9x12”), July 2019 Mixed Media - Encaustic Wax	"Midnight," pastel and chalk on black paper \| 7.5x9.5" \| 2019
Artwork by F. Torres	"Classical," watercolor on paper
O. Papadopoulos, 2020 Tyler School of Art scholarship recipient	O. Papadopoulos, 2020 Tyler School of Art scholarship recipient	M. Lin, 2020 BHS Second Prize Scholarship Winner
Artwork by J. Scott, BHS 2020 First Place Scholarship Winner	J. Stevens, 2019-2020 Tyler School of Art scholarship recipient with his artwork	2019 Winners: R. Navarro, A. Albert, H. Deng, H. Philip

	2018 BHS Award Winners: E. Callame-Pennington, F. Mohideen, L. Miller	Artwork by Farhaanah Mohideen, 2018 BHS First Prize Winner
Artwork by Emma Callame-Pennington, 2018 BHS Second Prize Winner	Artwork by Hannah Siesel, 2018 BHS Second Prize Winner	Artwork by Leila Miller, 2018 BHS Honorable Mention Award Winner
Rhoda Psaty Holzer Painting Studio,Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA	Rhoda's sculpture, "Dragonfly," hangs in the Dean's office at Tyler.
L-R: Charlie (Rhoda's grandson), Christopher, Brooklyn (Rhoda's granddaughter), Brooke (Rhoda's daughter) & Stuart with Rhoda's sculpture
The Holzer family, along with Interim Dean Hester Stinnett, Chair of Painting Mark Shetabi, and Tyler students at the dedication ceremony (April 2017).	Alezendria Decking, 2018 Tyler School of Art scholarship awardee, at work	2018 Tyler School of Art scholarship winner, Alezendria Decking, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY)
Stuart & Brooke, with Brooke's children, visited Alezendria's studio at Tyler in November 2018	Tyler School of Art Inaugural Scholarship Winner, Kevin Rose, at work in the RPH Painting Studio