Today we are IN THE CLASSROOM with Madison Gross, a graduate of Summit Middle School who is now teaching art at her alma mater.
“I remember taking Miss Buchanan’s clay class back in sixth or seventh grade, and we made these coil clay pots,” Miss Gross tells Krystal 93 news director Phil Lindeman. “My mom still has mine that she keeps all her pens in on her desk.”
Three years ago, she returned to Summit Middle, where she loves reimagining nostalgic projects with her own special twist – clay flowerpots instead of generic pots. It reminds her of being back in Miss Buchanan’s class.
“Art has always been my favorite class,” she says. “I always took as many art classes as I could.”
But she also loves introducing her students to new and emerging art, like a recent sixth-grade project on the street artist, Invader.
“My students learned all about him and played Space Invaders,” she says. “We talked about pixel art, and how art inspires pop culture and vice versa, and then they came up with their own ten-by-ten grid designs for stickers.”
Miss Gross was a career graphic designer for several years before rekindling her love for the classroom. She had ben tutoring high school students for the SATs, and it soon became the highlight of her day.
“Sometimes you think there’s only one path to do something,” she says. “You think, ‘I can’t switch what I’m doing because I can’t go back to school for another four years,’ but I didn’t have to do that. I found a certificate program that put me in the classroom and built upon the bachelor’s (degree) that I had.”
Today, back in the halls at Summit Middle, she is living proof that art can take you anywhere, even if it leads you back home.
“I hope that when students leave my class, they feel a little more confident in expressing themselves, even if that’s not through art,” she says. “I hope that by taking my class they find a creative voice they can tap back into.”
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