Julia Calvert teaches elementary art in Monroe, WI.
“My first class at Adamah was beginning throwing as a sophomore in college. Even though my mom was a ceramics teacher, I never really had time to just focus on ceramics. A week's worth of time here was like a semester's worth of work in a college level class.”
Julia has since returned for a number of workshops with instructors like Ryan Myers, David Dahlquist and Mark Skudlarek. “I was able to grow leaps and bounds during my time at Adamah. For example, my second class was Throwing and Altering Forms with Ryan Myers. I wasn’t a super strong thrower then and couldn’t throw things that were very large yet. Ryan’s class taught me to take what I was capable of, and challenged me to think about how I could alter it to make something bigger or even create something completely different. Taking a variety
of different classes pushed me to expand my understanding of clay.”
Julia shared that as an art teacher, there are so many mediums that one has to have an understanding about. “Speaking to any art teacher who doesn’t feel super comfortable with their throwing or the ceramics part of their programming, the variety of workshops offered at Adamah are a great way to develop one's skills. You can really take the time to focus on creating since much of our time is focused on teaching students.”
We appreciate Julia’s perspective, as someone who teaches the next generation of budding artists, on the impact immersive workshops provide and how they can benefit everyone on their creative journey.