Rami’s Fountain → NIAD Art Center

Rami Geller was a true champion for NIAD Art Center! His lifelong dedication was to nurture community and creativity as an artist, graphic designer, engineer, and business owner—it’s how Rami’s leadership and NIAD Art Center’s artists came together. Through his relationship with Yali’s Café on the UC Berkeley campus, Rami invited NIAD Art Center to install exhibitions of studio artists’ work for years. For many studio artists, this was their first exhibition outside of NIAD Art Center, and an incredible opportunity for our artists to show and sell their work! These exhibitions also provided a chance to celebrate art and community with Rami and their staff, with NIAD Art Center field trips to the exhibition openings.

Rami passed away on April 4, 2021. The entire NIAD Art Center community will miss him very much, and we are honored to join with Rami’s family and friends in honoring his legacy at NIAD. Together we have built a fountain to honor Rami in NIAD’s Courtyard Garden.

Jil Geller and NIAD artist Dorian Reid work together in the NIAD studio on creating Rami-inspired ceramic shoes for the fountain area.

NIAD Artists involved in the design and creation of Rami’s Fountain include:

Deatra Colbert
Luis Estrada
Heather Hamann
Peter Harris
Rebecca Jantzen
Sam Kershner
Shawna Kinard
Ann Meade
Michelle Nonnarath
Michael Nuñez
Dorian Reid
Julio Del Rio
Carlota Rodriguez
Alice Sampson
Shawn Sanders
Billy White

These artists have collaborated with Rami’s family and friends on the fountain’s design and creation over these past few years, and we were all very excited to unveil this beautiful tribute project on July 23, 2022. We celebrated and honored Rami’s warmth, generosity, and his lifelong ability to create meaningful, lasting connections.

This fountain is also forever changing, as it is added to regularly by NIAD artists, and Jil Geller, who joins us most weeks to volunteer in our ceramics department.