On April 10, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art (WMAA) held an educational class for children taught by two Seton Hill University (SHU) students, junior Tia Woller and sophomore Leah Shuck. The class was part of a series of four classes, each called
By Andrew Wichrowski
SHU Community News Editor
On April 10, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art (WMAA) held an educational class for children taught by two Seton Hill University (SHU) students, junior Tia Woller and sophomore Leah Shuck. The class was part of a series of four classes, each called
“Imagine with Me,” that teach preschool and kindergarten children about art.
“I originally became involved with the project after receiving [an] email from Seton Hill asking if anyone was interested in teaching an art class at the WMAA,” said Woller.
Woller was already acquainted with the staff of the WMAA because of her participation in one of the museum’s current exhibits, “Concerning the 1930s in Art: Paintings from the Schoen Collection,” helping to paint a mural for the exhibit’s entrance. Shuck also learned about the class in an email sent to her, and was aware of Woller’s interest in the class as well.
“The day that I went in for the formal interview, I was like ‘Why don’t Tia and I do this together?’” said Shuck.
Katie Barnard, Director of Education and Visitor Services at the WMAA, agreed with Shucks idea, and decided to have the two students both teach the class.
“Of course, I thought this would be a great idea, being able to teach my first class with one of my closest friends,” said Woller. “I think we were really lucky to have the opportunity to do this together, considering I was so nervous in front of a bunch of kids and their parents about to teach for the first time.”
The class centered around pieces in the museum’s “Kid’s Collection,” and primarily focused on three paintings that each showed the stories of Rip Van Winkle, the Death of Lady Elaine of King Arthur’s court and King Priam.
“The class was about narrative paintings, paintings that told a story,” said Shuck. “What they called it was ‘Imagine with Me,’ because the kids brought their favorite adults, most of them [were] their parents.”
The children went on a tour of the collection, and then participated in activities utilizing what they had learned about the paintings.
“We facilitated the children in recalling the characters from the paintings, and then we had them make puppets about those characters. Some of them didn’t remember the characters, and they just made puppets,” said Shuck.
While this was the first time in the “Imagine with Me” series that the class was taught by undergraduate college students, Barnard cited the close connection between SHU students and the WMAA.
“We have worked with Seton Hill and Saint Vincent College students, interning with us, volunteering, and we even have some that are working to become a docent, which is a volunteer tour guide,” said Barnard. “So we do have a really great relationship with Seton Hill and Saint Vincent students.”
“It was very enjoyable, they had a lot of recourses for us,” said Shuck. “I’m looking forward to working with them in the future.”
“It really opened my eyes to thinking that this is going to be what I’m doing for the rest of my life,” said Woller. “The children were so open and happy to be there. They had so much fun making different people and telling stories about the puppet they made.”
“Children really love art, and they are so creative, but so often as we grow up, we lose that spirit,” said Woller.