A photo of one of Karen's pieces, entitled "A New Home In The Sun"
Art Teacher Career
Karen Lia Schlick is a retired art teacher and NSCAD alumni with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Arts. Earlier in the summer we put out a call to artists, We asked what an artists experiences were, if they went to school for their art, if they followed it into a career, and what advice or lessons would you have for the someone potentially looking at a career in the arts. Karen was kind enough to answer, and it's a very good read. Check it out below:
When I attended NSCAD they actually had an art education department for training art teachers! I was initially enrolled in that program but it didn’t take long for me to realize that I needed to focus on figuring out who I was as an artist before I trained to be a teacher. I think it’s difficult to explore and discover who you are as an artist in addition to training in education or any other field at the same time. Therefore I graduated with my BFA, and then graduated again with a BFA in art education and finally with a Masters in art education.
Being in a degree program gives you time and space in which to explore various studio areas and possibilities that you wouldn’t do on your own. While I was completely self-taught in watercolour and that remains one of my main mediums, I also was very influenced as an artist by my years in printmaking and ceramics at the college.
No learning or studio experience is wasted; you never know what you might end up referring back to in the course of your development as an artist.
Unfortunately the degree program in art education no longer exists at NSCAD so if a student wants to become a teacher it has to be done through an education program in another university.
This is unfortunate because there’s a lot of difference between teaching art in an art room and teaching regular subject areas. Having taught both art and language arts and having worked with many student teachers over my 30 year career as an art teacher, I have observed regular university education courses don’t prepare a student very well for teaching in an art room.
Teaching art is a very special field; not everyone is cut out to be a teacher, let alone an art teacher. You need to have a love not only of creating, but also of helping others to discover their own creativity.
As an art teacher a lot of your time, energy and creative thinking goes into your classes and students. This does impact the amount of time and energy you have for your own work, but it is possible to do both. However, I think most art teachers would tell you that they have made sacrifices in their own development as artists, in order to teach. It’s a very demanding profession, but wonderfully rewarding for the right person.
Comments