Jonathan Silverman works for creativity for everyone
Jonathan Silverman’s passion for art is contagious. He started teaching 45 years ago and recently retired after 25 years at St. Michael’s College. In 2018, he was named Vermont Art Educator of the Year. That award is usually given to elementary, middle or high school teachers, but Silverman received it for his work in training art educators who went on to teach at those levels.
Silverman got his master’s degree in counseling, and for a time, he worked as a high school guidance counselor. His love of art led him to become an administrator at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. From there, he returned to the University of Vermont where he had done his undergraduate work. He received his doctorate in education, which led to a tenured position at St. Mike’s where he chaired the education department and taught courses on the creative process, integrated curriculum and aesthetic-holistic learning.
Silverman has a particular interest in environmental art. He and a colleague led student trips to Wales where they looked at environmental projects with what he describes as an aesthetic lens. “It’s hard for me to separate the idea of nature and art,” he said.
With a student he co-wrote a paper on creating a curriculum for sustainability for Vermont’s public schools.
Silverman is currently on the staff of the Shelburne Craft School. He is a ceramicist but is not currently teaching that art form.
“With ceramics I’m constantly interacting with and creating forms and space,” he said.
Silverman’s artistic talent goes beyond his ceramics. He sings in the local Aurora Chorus and with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.
Although Silverman makes functional pieces, his preference is sculpture and form.
“I had a studio before I became an educator,” he said. “I was a decent artist but a crappy salesperson.”
These days there is less need to worry about selling pieces to put food on the table so Silverman is happy to be able to create what he wants.
Silverman’s work has an international flair. In addition to the trips to Wales, he brought his St. Michael’s students to Italy and Greece. Last November, he took students from Shelburne Craft School to Japan and will do so again this year. In 2019, he was invited to be a visiting professor at Doshisha University in Kyoto.
For the last quarter century, Silverman has been a member of the International Society for Education Through Art and has enjoyed going to international conferences and meeting artists from across the globe. Laughing that his sixth-grade self with poor grades in English would have been horrified at this career move, Silverman was named co-editor of the organization’s International Journal for Art Education, sharing the job with two women from Hungary and Japan.
“I love it,” he said. “The goal is to make the articles accessible to an international audience where English is a second or third language.”
When Silverman returned to Vermont in 1991 for his doctoral program, he looked for a small house with a garden and found a home in Charlotte. For at least a decade he has been on the board of trustees of the library and has chaired the board for eight of those years.
Silverman leads tours at Shelburne Farms and walking tours in Vermont with Country Walkers. Hiking is a passion, and he summits Camel’s Hump at least once a month.
“That’s my meditation,” he said. “I really enjoy that journey. I can be at the base in 35 minutes and home in time to work in the studio in the afternoon or connect with friends.”
He has also done treks in the Pyrenees and Dolomites, and with a college buddy he has summited all 46 of the 4,000-foot peaks in the Adirondacks.
“I love being in the moment and the impromptu of teaching,” Silverman said. “My challenge has always been to bring the classroom alive.”
It helps that Silverman believes that everyone is capable of creativity.
“The more they explore the creative process, the more they will be able to nourish a sense of discovery and interact with life’s challenges,” he said.