"I have come to believe what people say about the students here," says art historian and Byron K. Trippet Assistant Professor of Art. "They are so intelligent and eager. I’ve had to change my teaching. Wabash students operate at a higher level of intensity – academic and otherwise – than students I had taught previously. There is a very high threshold of intellectual activity on this campus."
Lee learned about Wabash on a national website when she was teaching at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. That was one stop on her geographical zigzag from the East to Midwest and back again before the settled into her office in Wabash’s Art Wing of the Fine Arts Center. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Wake Forest University, her master’s at the University of Minnesota, and Ph.D. at Indiana University.
Now in her second year at Wabash, Lee is energized by the students, whom she infuses with an appreciation and understanding of the beauty of art. Their enthusiasm for learning inspires her, and her enthusiasm inspires them. She is quick to point out how much immersion trips abroad have opened students’ minds for broader and deeper understanding. "They are so eager to know more," Professor Lee observed with obvious pleasure.
She does her best to help them learn more; in class, in the Wabash galleries, and at museums. Each semester she takes students to the Art Institute in Chicago. They go to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and, so they can learn some sense of the real-world aspects of the creative life, each of her students must attend at least one on=campus exhibition, not only to view the art, but to see the artist standing in the gallery while visitors critique the work in front of him or her.
"Young people are so visual now," Lee said. "They are bombarded by images on television, video games, and movies, and it’s often all so fast. It is really important to me to teach them critical skills so they can recognize and appreciate the good work when they see it, no matter if it’s in a museum, on television, or in a comic book. Art enriches life. I want them to be able to turn to it for pleasure and respite and strength all their lives long."
Six Wabash juniors and seniors gained ability to recognize good art from their Spring Break immersion trip to New York City, where it was art, art, art, morning ‘til night in the home of much of the greatest art in the world – from the ancient Egyptian Temple of Dendur to the hottest new trends in Soho and Tribecca. With Lee and her art department colleagues as guides, they visited the newly renovated Museum of Modern Art and the Harlem Museum.
They saw Georgia O’Keefe’s flowers at the Whitney, and stood in the sacred rooms of Ellis Island, where the individual lives of immigrants and the entire fabric of the United States was enriched. They visited with Wabash art major Nate Quinn ’00, whose work now hangs in New York galleries.
Back on campus, Elizabeth Lee returned to presenting her students with an introduction to some of mankind’s highest forms of expression throughout the centuries. Getting acquainted with art is exhilarating for the students. Their enthusiasm for learning makes teaching a joyous experience for their professor.