Twenty students gather around a monochrome study: a bird cage, multiple prisms, a skeleton, and an old clock are just a few of the miscellaneous objects before them. Artists sketch in white charcoal on black paper, outlining objects and shading highlighted regions on a sphere. Ms. Karen Cuchel, Art Department Chairperson and art teacher at South High, observes her Studio Art I class. She steps closer to one student, lost in thought, to discuss their composition. With another student, she critiques their light shading.
Prior to becoming the Chairperson of the Art Department at South, Ms. Cuchel worked as an art teacher at North High for a decade. However, she had not always aspired to teach. She acquired her Bachelor of Arts from Smith College and her MFA from Washington University at St. Louis. Nevertheless, her path shifted from practicing artist to teacher when she taught a math SAT Prep course and worked with two deaf students. “There were so many differences [at the public school versus a Deaf school] in how they seemed to learn that got me thinking that teaching is a very interesting field.” She chose to work at a private school in Pennsylvania before getting her teaching license.
Ms. Cuchel loves teaching—a fact that has never wavered throughout her 31 years and seven months at Great Neck. She values the fact “that every day includes a conversation where a student makes me think about something differently.” Ms. Cuchel has taught varying studio Art classes and AP Studio Art. In her classes, she instilled community, incorporating critiques and group discussions about her students’ art.
As the Art Chairperson, she championed the introduction of the AP Art History and Illustrating Graphic Novels courses. She adapted the AP Art History curriculum to follow a thematic format, teaching by geographic region. She also had to adjust her teaching to have more assignments in smaller windows as opposed to her studio art classes where deadlines are long-term. She created a stronger progression from ninth to twelfth grade as well: every year, students complete a portrait that gets increasingly more difficult—by tenth grade, students incorporate color grading. The first two studio art courses focus on technique, while the latter two emphasize personal artistry, expression, and composition.
For the future, Ms. Cuchel plans to prioritize her career as an artist. She would like to travel for her art. Her first trip will be to the pilgrimage trail in France. She wants to continue working with students, specifically teaching as an adjunct professor at college or helping eighth graders craft their high school entrance portfolios. She explained, “It just seems like too much stress to go through at that age. It’s hard enough to do [portfolios for] college, and I really found [the mentorship] valuable.”
She leaves her students with one last piece of advice: “Do what you love. Take a risk. Don’t look for security. If you’re passionate about something, do it.”
