Alumni Profiles
Della Watkins, MAE Art Education
Student at VCU: 1994-1996
Current Employment: Associate Director of Education & Statewide Partnerships, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
What was one of your best experiences while you were part of the Department of Art Education?
I enjoyed interacting with VCU art education and art history faculty. They were professional, knowledgeable, inspirational, and caring.
How did the Department of Art Education prepare you for your job now?
The Art Ed Department encouraged me to take on meaningful independent projects. One such project lead me into museum education!
What do you most enjoy about being an art educator?
I worked eleven years in Virginia public school art classrooms and loved every minute interacting with children. Now, I enjoy working with museum visitors of all ages as I facilitate their understanding and delight of each original work of art.
What role does your art making practice play in your teaching?
Aside from my great love of reading and art historical research, I am an occasional painter and dapple in collage. Each medium helps me better understand technique, style, purpose and subject so that I might help others identify subtleties in processes; recognize cultural variations, and content nuances.
What advice would you give to someone that wants to teach art?
Be sure you have a passion for art and a strong desire to communication that passion in articulate, accurate, fresh, and engaging ways.
Jacquelyn Pascucci, BFA Art Education
Student at VCU: Fall 2003 - Spring 2007
Current Employment: Art & Photography Teacher at Hanover High School
How did the Department of Art Education prepare you for your job now?
I don't know if I could have been more prepared! I had so much in-classroom experience before I graduated that transitioning from student to teacher was absolutely no problem.
What do you most enjoy about being an art educator?
My students, no question. I love getting to know them and watching them grow personally and artistically.
What advice would you give to someone that wants to teach art?
Be absolutely sure you LOVE both art AND teaching. Loving my students and my job makes my life so wonderful!
Whittni Brown-Abdullah, BFA Art Education, BA in International Studies
Current Employment: Elementary Art Teacher
What was one of your best experiences while you were part of the Department of Art Education?
Presenting a lesson plan at the VAEA conference for VCU as a student teacher. I was presenting, and I hadn't even graduated yet! I feel that the faculty showed great faith in me to select me to present to practicing art educators. I felt that I was actually a part of a professional community.
What do you most enjoy about being an art educator?
I enjoy teaching and learning from the kids. They are very loving and I get to share THE WORLD with them. As an art educator, I get to expose them to many different cultures, intelligences, and fields of thought, and I get to connect to everything they already know. There are no limits except the ones we place on ourselves!