SEEKING IMPACT

My journey towards teaching began in the most unlikely of circumstances, with the first step taken at a time when I was more intent on actively walking beyond formal education.

Ten years ago, I set off on a speculative trip to New York, an epicentre of the artistic world, with a dream of finding work in one of the city’s many celebrated galleries.

Over the previous six years I had completed an undergraduate degree in art history and theory at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), followed by a Master’s degree in Art Administration. After so many years focused on theory, I was determined to put my studies into practice in a metropolis renowned as a hotbed of artistic expression.

There had been a tantalising nibble at living abroad in a cultural mecca a few years earlier, when I had undertaken an exchange semester studying art history in northern Italy at the University of Padua. Founded in 1222, it is the fifth oldest university in the world and was a perfect platform for a plunge into creativity and inspiration.

So, in the American summer of 2013, I arrived at John F. Kennedy airport full of anticipation but with few clothes and only a sketchy blueprint for the future. In the back of my mind was the thought that the worst that could happen was I would soak up a remarkable three-month holiday and return to Sydney with a mosaic of indelible memories and a handful of bills to pay.

If I Can Make it There ...

Once in New York, I quickly sorted out where I wanted to live, secured a short-term lease on an apartment, and hustled, sending out countless job applications. Pleasingly, these elicited a few interviews and then two particularly appealing job offers: one was as the director’s assistant at a large commercial gallery called Gagosian and the other at the auction house, Phillips.

The auction house presented as a better fit and would prove to be a wonderful choice. We were based right in the heart of Manhattan, a stone’s throw from Central Park and the Museum of Modern Art, and the work was fast paced, involving a side of the art scene that I had never experienced.

During my stint there, I worked as one of the gallery managers and in-client liaison on auction days, and there were many fascinating experiences. We would work at every auction, be involved in every sale, bid for clients, run registration at auctions, and work front of house in the gallery during exhibitions.

After three years, though, the pull of home drew me back to Sydney, where I worked appraising, valuing and consigning art for Australian auction house, Leonard Joel.

That role ensured I came across some intriguing work, such as a painting by Margaret Olley, as well as various long-lost treasures from grandma’s garage that people became quite devastated to learn were not worth much.

Eventually, the reality that auction houses necessarily focus on the monetary aspect of art began to grow stale for me, and I missed the creativity and imagination of the art world. The transactional emphasis was eating away at my passion for art.

That was when I knew I wanted to go into teaching. It was an opportunity to channel my enthusiasm, knowledge, and love of art; to get me back to thinking about the beauty of an artwork rather than whether it would sell.

Returning to the Classroom

After heading back to UNSW in 2018 to complete a Master of Teaching, and a few stints practicum teaching, I had the good fortune to find my way to Wenona in 2019, allowing me to teach Visual Arts to Junior School students through to Year 12.

Wenona has a particularly strong Visual Arts program that fosters and expands student skills throughout the stages of their development. From Stage 4, which is the mandatory component, through to electives students are exposed to all different art forms. Ours is a school with a collaborative and supportive Visual Arts Department, where knowledge, ideas, and initiatives are freely shared.

I just love teaching young people Visual Arts. Every program begins with drawing, and of course, some students are naturally gifted, while others take great heart in learning that the more they put in, the better they become.

It is especially fulfilling helping students who lack confidence to gradually improve and blossom. Not only is it exciting to see the joy that art brings to the students, but as teachers we, in turn, gain enormous energy from them.

Outstanding Teacher Award

Personally, switching careers has been a really positive change. My aim was to use my industry knowledge and experience to foster a passion for arts education in young people. You can imagine my great pleasure when the Australian Council of Educational Leadership phoned out of the blue last year to inform me that our Head of Visual Arts Michele Brennan, had covertly nominated me for an annual award. And that I had won.

The Keith Tronc Award for Outstanding Teacher Leadership was lovely recognition, an award “given annually to early-career teachers who have demonstrated outstanding practice in the classroom and as a result have made a difference to colleagues and the lives of students in their care’’.

It is quite humbling that Michele thought to nominate me, and to know I am seen as a teacher who helps make a difference to colleagues and students.

I am glad that I came to teaching the way I did. If I had gone straight from university to the classroom, I think I would have always been left wondering what those other aspects of the art world were like and whether I should have pursued them.

As it is, I gain such pleasure helping young people explore their passion for art. To help them understand, in the words of English artist Henry Moore, that “to be an artist is to believe in life”.