Blanden welcomes new art educator

There is a new face at the Blanden Memorial Art Museum and she is ready and excited to help the community get creative. Marisha Erickson joined the Blanden staff at the beginning of August as the art educator.

Erickson received her masters in Art Education from the University of Minnesota and has mainly been teaching high school art for the past few years.

Erickson is originally from Oklahoma, but has taught in Minneapolis, Chicago, and the California desert before she and her husband chose to move back to the Midwest. Erickson is married to Matt Fenner who lived in Fort Dodge for many years when he was young.

Erickson said she was drawn to the opportunity to teach in a smaller setting.

She said, "I taught formally in a school for a while and I loved it, but I wanted to get experience in other contexts. I felt museum and community education would be a good transition."

In the short month Erickson has been at the Blanden, she's already begun making plans to expand the art education program at the museum.

"I think that the program is focused a lot on younger kids or adults and from what I've gauged, there's this missing link with teenagers and college students,'' she said..'' That's my expertise and my background so I really want to develop classes and programs that are actually accessible to them."

Erickson said it has been difficult developing plans for programming due to COVID-19. Due to limitations, Erickson has held some virtual classes.

"I want to do more virtual classes because I know the public seems to like them," she said.

Erickson taught high school art virtually all of the last school year and says she will pull out her "virtual toolkit" for classes at the Blanden. For some of the virtual classes, Erickson puts together free take-home kits for the public.

Erickson has several goals she would like to accomplish to share her love of art with the community.

"I like teaching art, but more than teaching art I want to create experimental programs and spaces for people to take risks," she said, "I also want to build stronger relationships with the schools to support classroom teachers with relevant resources and build more permanent school programs and collaborations."

In addition to the smaller size of the Blanden, Erickson said she appreciates the museum's focus on local artists.

"It's a very accessible place for artists to show their work. We're not snobby here," she said..

Blanden Director Eric Anderson said they are excited to have Erickson as part of the team.

"She brings years of art teaching experience and a solid knowledge base of art education,'' he said.''The museum is committed to providing quality programming opportunities to the community."

Anderson said he feels the art education program is important for the future.

"The programming inspires the next generation of artists, collectors, and supporters,'' he said. ''Marisha has an excellent vision for the art education program at the Blanden that is about growth and making connections with the community, embracing area needs and wants."

Erickson said the Blanden is still working on recovering from the toll of the pandemic.

She said, "I think we have seen people coming back, we had some volunteers come back. I guess a lot of my work in the next year is going to be just helping to repair and supporting the community in healing."