Arts Instructor Lives the Sanford motto: “No Talent Lies Latent”

“I have always been interested in the environment, including environmental concerns, the flora and fauna in each of the habitats I have visited throughout my life,” Nina said. But she’d never thought about incorporating that interest into her art classroom until she attended a “STEAM” (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) workshop last year where participants learned to use natural materials to make pigments. The workshop inspired her to develop a new Middle School elective called “Art Lab.” But first, she realized she needed to broaden her knowledge about the natural world.

So Nina decided to take a leap out of her comfort zone and enroll in a naturalist certification course offered by the Delaware Nature Society at Ashland Nature Center. (“Besides,” she admitted, “I am inherently curious and attracted to shiny objects.”) The six-month course discussed the various ecosystems found within Delaware and how they affect—and are affected by—humans. Experts in each area delivered lectures, and students then had a chance to take field trips to practice observing, identifying, and classifying various species and chronicle their experiences in journals.

In addition to gaining new knowledge to use in the classroom, Nina said, “I also saw this course as a vehicle for progressing my own art practice forward through photography.” She took thousands of photographs during the course with the goal of choosing and editing a few standouts for exhibition. Over the summer, the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover exhibited one of Nina’s pieces as part of a show of works by Delaware art educators.

Two of her photographs were also recently accepted into the Regional Art Show at the Center for the Creative Arts in Yorklyn, with one unaltered photograph, “Derby Winner,” winning an honorable mention. This exhibition highlights work by artists from Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, and contains beautiful works done by artists from the novice to the professional. The juror for this show was Virginia daCosta, an associate professor of art history at West Chester University.

Nina also shared her professional knowledge and skills with colleagues from around the state in a presentation at the DAEA’s annual conference on October 6th. “For the past three years or so,” she explained, “I have been fine-tuning a set of transferable skills needed in school, the workplace, and in life. The list of words all begins with the letter ‘p.’ At this year's conference, I demonstrated the P Principles through a Design Thinking problem-solving model."