For art's sake

Mike James/The Independent

Ashland February 03, 2007 11:33 pm

— Sitting with her back to the single bank of windows in the high-ceilinged studio, Joey Brown coaxed an image from the blackened sketch pad propped in front of her.
Brown and nine other students scattered around the studio glanced occasionally at a jumble of draperies in front of them under the glare of a single light.
The occasional rasp of erasers on paper punctuated the quiet as images slowly emerged on the pads.
The exercise was part of an introductory drawing class at Ashland Community and Technical College. Some of the students are art neophytes while others, like Brown, are preparing for careers in art.
Since last semester, ACTC has been in a better position to help with their preparation, hiring a full-time art professor and adding more course offerings.
“Just because we live in a small town doesn’t mean we should be deprived of what a big university can give,” said Brown, who plans to continue her art education after she receives her associate’s degree this spring, and hopes one day to be an art professor.
There are very few fine arts majors at ACTC, not enough to support a degree program, but that doesn’t mean the college shouldn’t have a significant art program, according to Karen George, division chairman for humanities.
“For me, the arts have been very important and when I became division chair I wanted to re-emphasize art,” George said.
Hiring full-time art professor Wendy Fosterwelsh was part of the picture. ACTC lost her predecessor during budget cutbacks several years ago.
Fosterwelsh teaches two drawing courses, two painting courses and introduction to art. They’re all courses that have been in ACTC’s catalog but were offered only when there was sufficient demand and taught by adjunct faculty.
Part of Fosterwelsh’s job will be to develop the art program further. “I see so much talent. I want to cultivate the talent that’s there,” she said.
The other thing she wants to cultivate is an appreciation for art, so in class she shrugs past the dates and names and talks to her students about color and form and light. “I want them to want to go to museums and talk to their friends about art.”
The egalitarian spirit of the community college makes a well-developed art program a natural fit for ACTC, Fosterwelsh believes. “It’s all about community here. The open doors allow anyone to be a creative person.
“You don’t have to be a special person to be an artist, and you don’t have to be afraid to go to a gallery.”
The program also makes art classes more accessible, said Brian Ashby, a student in Fosterwelsh’s drawing class who hopes to be a high school art teacher.
“I’d have to drive to Morehead State every day if I didn’t get the class here,” Ashby said. That would be difficult because he works full time.
A painter by background, Fosterwelsh spent several years working in art therapy in elementary and high schools and then took that expertise with her to Bosnia, where she worked with children in that war-torn country.
Her recent paintings, on handmade paper, are inspired by the images her youthful charges made during that time.
ACTC’s art resurgence coincides with a renewed focus on the arts in Ashland, George said. ACTC has renovated studio space in the Pendleton Art Center and Fosterwelsh will be working with students there as well, she said.
An exhibit of student art is scheduled to open at the Pendleton in time for April’s First Friday event, Fosterwelsh said.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2652.