Jacqueline Belfort-Chalat, of Syracuse, died on Feb. 26 at the age of 94.
According to her obituary, she was a “noted sculptor, painter, and academic,” and was the Founding Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Le Moyne College.
She was born in Mount Vernon, N.Y. on February 23, 1930 to Jacob and Mildred Chalat.
She graduated at the age of 18 with a B.A from the University of Chicago and graduated with the title of professor, a doctoral equivalent, from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Denmark, with previous studies, starting at the age of 13, at Columbia University, and New York City’s Arts Students League and Fashion Institute of Technology.
She began teaching at Le Moyne College in 1969. The role of professor was something she had often declined.
“When this opportunity arose,” she told The Post-Standard in 1971, “I had to go along with it. I have been given the freedom to teach in a way I couldn’t in any other place. It’s very exciting to build something new.”
Her sculpture class, the newspaper noted, “is probably the only class in the country offering marble carving in the first semester and culminating with free carving by the end of the semester.”
By 1971, she was teaching over 160 students, and each was “taught totally as an individual – on a one-to-one basis.”
Belfort-Chalat continued as Chair until 2003, when she became Chair of Visual Arts until her retirement at 80 as Professor Emeritus in 2009.
“She taught sculpture, drawing, painting, and art history to thousands of students during her 40-year academic career,” her obituary said.
“She leaves behind generations of students who have become community leaders, doctors, educators, athletes, visual and performing artists and business leaders.”
During her own extensive art career, Belfort-Chalet created an impressive body of non-secular work housed in churches across New York State, including the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse, Le Moyne College, and even The Vatican.
Her secular work can be found in private collections and institutions like the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, the Smithsonian Institution, and galleries and museums in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Canada, Nigeria, and Europe.
“The professional artist is a person of great discipline and the secret core of what I teach is self-discipline and self-criticism,” she told The Post-Standard in 1980.
Belfort-Chalat was a lector and trainer of lectors for many years at The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and was “also on call as a spiritual director,” with emphasis on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
She was also a sought-after lecturer on Art, Education and Religion for many institutions, including Notre Dame, Howard University, Catholic University, Syracuse University, and the Smithsonian Institution.
In addition to her own works, she was a collector of fine art, Asian art, African art, and ceramics.
Her obituary added that she was an avid naturalist and “got enormous enjoyment from cultivating, nurturing, and showing off her beautiful garden, sharing her extensive knowledge of plants with those who visited her home, and bird watching.”
Belfort-Chalat is predeceased by her parents and her brother, Marc.
She is survived by her daughter Cate Ziegler, her son David Ziegler and his wife Carmen Ziegler, her granddaughters Tania Ziegler and Ana Ziegler, as well as, nephews Jerome Ziegler, Jonathan Nicholas Ziegler, Josef Chalat and David Chalat, niece Sharon Ziegler and many friends and colleagues of all ages.
Visitation will be held on Thursday, April 4 at 9 a.m. in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 259 East Onondaga Street, Syracuse, N.Y. A Mass of Christian Burial will follow at 10.
Burial will be private.
Please leave memories and condolences on
