Sally Rodgers Award for Lifelong Achievement

The Sally Rodgers Award for Lifelong Achievement, created in 1999 to honor Sally Rodgers, long time director of alumni relations, is given to an individual who graduated from Whitman College over 50 years ago and whose life exemplifies the qualities of a liberal arts education.

The 2026 Sally Rodgers Award Winner, John Rasmussen ’71

John “Jack” Rasmussen left Whitman College with a BA in Art, but his education hardly ended there. He went on to earn an MFA in Painting, master’s degrees in Anthropology and Arts Management, and a doctorate in Anthropological Linguistics. His professional career has been equally wide-ranging.

Throughout his career, Rasmussen has been drawn to innovative and alternative art spaces. He served as Assistant Director of the Washington Project for the Arts and later helped conceive and launch Rockville Arts Place in Maryland, where he became Executive Director. He subsequently led the Maryland Art Place in Baltimore and the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa, California. Deeply committed to regional artists, international contemporary art, and socially engaged practice, Rasmussen has pursued all three passions during his twenty-two years as Director and Curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, a position he has held since the museum opened in 2005.

A respected leader in the museum field, Rasmussen is a past president of both the Maryland State Arts Council and the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums. Over the course of his career, he has curated regional, national, and international exhibitions featuring artists from more than fifty countries across six continents, including nations throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Oceania.

Not all of Rasmussen’s work has been in nonprofit institutions. He also successfully owned and operated the Jack Rasmussen Gallery in Washington, D.C., for five years. Alongside his curatorial and administrative accomplishments, he has maintained an active studio practice as an artist. His creative interests extend to music as well: he sings with the rock cover band The Artifacts and plays trombone in American University’s Jazz Orchestra and Symphonic Band. He
continues to serve on several arts and cultural boards.

Jack Rasmussen’s leadership, creativity, and commitment to the arts have left a lasting mark on the contemporary art world. He is a gifted curator, accomplished arts administrator, champion of international cultural exchange, and a steadfast advocate for artists whose work challenges audiences to think more deeply about the world around them. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated a remarkable ability to present exhibitions that engage difficult questions, foster dialogue, and, in the spirit of John Lewis, create “good trouble.”