Ceramics professor speaks to students about art careers
Ganstrom started out with an exercise, using sticky notes. She had each student draw out items that they like to doodle, such as their happy place and things they love.
On Feb. 27, a ceramics professor and artist at Fort Hays State University, Linda Ganstrom, spoke to students about art careers during PRIDE Time in the Lecture Hall.
Ganstrom has Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees and has taught art at elementary, high school, junior college level and college level.
Ganstrom started out with an exercise, using sticky notes. She had each student draw out items that they like to doodle, such as their happy place and things they love.
“One way that I think everybody can relate to, is starting off with an exercise of visualization, remembrance and thinking,” Ganstrom said.
Ganstrom then explained to students what she drew and how these all tied in to how she chose her career.
“I found the perfect art job that combines science and math,” Ganstrom said. “So, in ceramics, you have a lot of glazes, all made from different chemicals, so it’s chemistry. You put the product in the kiln, and that’s physics. Everything in ceramics is what I call ‘loose engineering,’ so that really fit my personality.”
Ganstrom then went into detail about the different art careers available.
“There are 350 different art careers listed,” Ganstrom said. “If you put together your different values and the different things you like, it might play out in different ways. There are people that work in museums and galleries, there are people that build things in order to display art, there’s studio art [and] we have graphic designers [and] art educators.”
Lastly, Ganstrom discussed what art classes are like at FHSU.
“Classes are thought as if you have no prior knowledge,” Ganstrom said. “There’s really no comparison judgement in the art department. What I see with students coming into the art department is there is two different groups. There are students who have gone through the art side, and there are students coming in that have never touched a pencil to draw. They are completely coming in from a computer side. We try to take each student wherever they are at and help them get closer to their goals.”
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