Neil Tetkowski grew up in Western New York, with the exception of several formative years in Siena, Italy (1961-64). He was the youngest person to benefit from the Siena study abroad program initiated by his father Dr. Clement Tetkowski, who was an art professor at Buffalo State. Before his tenth birthday, Neil had visited museums and cultural landmarks in more than twenty countries. Tetkowski’s time in Tuscany with the ancient stone architecture, terra-cotta roofs and rich colorful landscapes clearly made a lasting impression and may have been a reason why he became an artist. He says his connection with clay and the Earth is rooted in these very early experiences. Neil Tetkowski’s creative projects are often a means to express his relationship to the natural environment and the interconnection of all people. In 2000 he conceived and built a unique sculpture at the United Nations using a blend of earth materials from every nation. There he physically involved people from every country of the world. “The Common Ground World Project” was officially endorsed at the United Nations in 1997 as an environmental project and was exhibited in its completed form in 2002 at the Visitor’s Lobby in New York. Tetkowski has had solo shows in Japan, Italy, China, Sweden, Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands. He has received many awards including a Ford Foundation grant. Tetkowski’s artwork is widely published and represented internationally in fifty museum collections. Since 1993, Tetkowski has been living in Manhattan. www.tetkowski.com