Gestures W'06_07 FINAL 2.indd - Temple University

faculty/staff news
Great Teacher Awards:
Two Tyler Faculty Honored
As a painter, Stanley Whitney ordinarily communicates his
thoughts and ideas through vivid brush strokes. But for 32
years, he has shown equal skill with a different kind of canvas
— the students. “As an artist, I am eternally silent, so in the
classroom, I get a chance to be creative through my lesson
plans,” Whitney said.
Whitney is a professor in the painting, drawing and sculpture
department at the Tyler School of Art. His unique ability to
captivate and educate art students, residents and fellows
alike has earned him a 2006 Temple University Great
Teacher Award.
“Stanley has motivated me and countless other students
to pursue art consciously, intellectually, politically and
critically,” a former Tyler student said. “He never lets a
student slip through a course casually and requires a rigorous
thoughtfulness from both the students who are struggling
and those who are not.”
Whitney earned his bachelor’s degree in fine art from the
Kansas City Art Institute and his master’s degree from Yale
University. He came to Temple in 1973 from a teaching
position at the University of Rhode Island. According to his
students, his honest critiques have gained him respect as an
educator while also keeping many in fearful anticipation of
his opinion. “He has the ability to rip you to shreds with one
phrase and leave you in the studio with the aftermath. But if
it wouldn’t have been for his candidness, I would not be the
artist I am today.”
“For me, teaching has its
rewards in knowing that I’m
talking to young people who will
be the future of the art world,”
Whitney said proudly. “Having
input into the future gives
me a chance to make a real
mark on the art profession in a
different way than I can with my
paintings.” - STANLEY WHITNEY
“I love watching students grow
intellectually. And I truly
like teaching entry-level,
introductory courses, so I can
enable students to see the
potentials of art and of history
and share my enthusiasm for
the subject matter.”
- DR. THERESE DOLAN
Dr. Therese Dolan herself acknowledges her own deep-rooted
drive to learn, accompanied by a passion for teaching. At age
four, she ran away—to school, following her older sister to
her kindergarten class “because I wanted to be in school and
learn new things.”
The results of a Kuder Preference Test she took in high school
suggested she was best suited for a career as a stand-up
comedian, and while her lectures are peppered with humor,
she cannot remember ever wanting to do anything but teach.
“The first question on that Kuder Preference Test in high
school was ‘Which would you prefer to do? 1) Read a book,
2) Listen to music or 3) Visit an art museum’ and I puzzled
over my response because I wanted to do all three.” Teaching
has been the perfect profession that has allowed me to do
all of them.
The opportunity to work as a governess in Rome for a year
opened her eyes to the worlds of both art and history. “I
taught myself Rome, took Italian classes and traveled all over
Europe,” she recalled. “I was hooked. When I came back, I
began studying art history at Bryn Mawr.” She earned both
her master’s and doctoral degrees and joined the art history
faculty at Temple’s Tyler School of Art in 1981. And the rest,
as they say, is (art) history!
“She is a passionate and innovative scholar … a dedicated
teacher and an incredibly engaging communicator [who]
brings the study of art alive for her students,” wrote a
former student and colleague. “She pushes her students to
move beyond reactionary opinion and become independent
thinkers.”
Even after decades at the front of a classroom, she confesses
to still feeling nervous before every lecture. “The truth is I
barely sleep at all the night before the first day of the new
semester. I’m that anxious to teach and learn. And to do my
best.” And clearly, she has. On April 11, Dolan received a
2006 Great Teacher Award.
TYLER GESTURES WINTER 2006 13