David W. Ecker.
History is made up of the stories we tell about people and events. Despite our best efforts to assemble these accounts, there is so much that is lost. I fear my tale of David W. Ecker will be one of many lost in the sands of time. He's currently living in New Hampshire, and maintaining an apartment in Greenwich Village, N.Y., with his wife, Willavene, who continues to teach at New York University. I continue to refer to him as "young David Ecker," even though he is now "retired" and clearly has achieved "senior-citizen" status.Ecker grew up on Long Island, N.Y. After high school, he attended SUNY Farmingdale (State University of New York). During the Korean War, he served as a commanding officer of an Army intelligence unit, and was awarded a Bronze Star and two battle stars. I remember hearing his tales of combat on Pork Chop Hill.
He received his Bachelor of Science degree from SUNY and Albright Art School in Buffalo, and spent 1956 teaching at the American Community School in Asuncion, Paraguay, where he met and married his first wife, Gloria.
He was an art teacher at Babylon High School in New York (1957-58), and attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he received a master's degree. Between 1959 and 1960 he was a part-time instructor teaching philosophy of education at Wayne State University. In 1960, he joined the faculty of the school of art at Ohio State University (OSU).
It was around this time I came to know David Ecker. His article, "Toward a Philosophy of Art Education," was published in the NAEA Research Yearbook that I edited. What a treat to have him as a friend and colleague: robust and energetic, well grounded in philosophy and aesthetics, and a talented teacher! I consider his article, "The Artistic Process as Qualitative Problem Solving" (Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 1963), to be one of our most insightful statements bringing together philosophy and teaching practice at the time.
While on the faculty at OSU, Ecker worked on numerous projects. Perhaps most important was his participation in organizing the Seminar in Art Education for Research and Curriculum Development, held at Pennsylvania State University in 1966. Later that same year, he was the project director for "Improving the Teaching of Art Appreciation," a U.S. Office of Education Cooperative Research Project in 1966. Together with Elliot Eisner he edited "Readings in Art Education." Along with Manuel Barkan and myself, he helped guide the development of what was to become the Aesthetic Education Project under the auspices of the Central Midwestern Educational Laboratory. He was a key player in the first phase of deliberations on the conceptual basics for the project, with work done in Aspen, Colo., in 1968.
In 1968, Ecker and I joined the faculty of NYU. So much more might be written of his exploits in New York City. He married Willavene Wolf, an educational psychologist, whom he knew at Ohio State. David's interests roamed far and wide: he took courses in cooking (Chinese and Armenian, studying with James Beard); his field research as an artist-blacksmith in India resulted in an international symposium on Damascus steel (co-directed with G.N. Pant of the National Museum, New Delhi, 1985); and he created the International Society for the Advancement of Living Traditions in Art (ISALTA).
As an advisor in NYU's doctoral program, Ecker worked with students from all over the world. His students have completed field research in Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, Tibet, Jordan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Brazil and the U.S. No wonder he's been a leader in preserving and nurturing those arts in danger of being lost. He has been at the forefront of promoting multicultural art education in both third-world and industrialized societies.
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Today, David Ecker spends most of his time in Moultonborough, N.H. I fear that he has lost interest and enthusiasm with much that is now happening in American art education. what a loss! His insights are needed more now than ever.
In general, history is made up of accounts and analyses that help us understand who we are and how we have come to where we are. Oftentimes, we speak of "the history of art educators," but there's no simple narrative that tells the full story. These are histories. When you come down to it, our history is made up of accounts of people and institutions--their actions and ideas. As the years go by, I frequently pause to think about individuals who've influenced me. These thoughts and memories serve as the basis for this series, "Art Teachers I Have Known."--J.J.H.
Jerome J. Hausman is a visiting professor at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and serves on the Arts & Activities Editorial Advisory Board.
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| Title Annotation: | ART TEACHERS I HAVE KNOWN |
|---|---|
| Author: | Hausman, Jerome J. |
| Publication: | Arts & Activities |
| Geographic Code: | 1USA |
| Date: | Nov 1, 2011 |
| Words: | 806 |
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