Lunch With
KIT GRAUER Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Art and Museum Education, The University of British Columbia
Interviewed by Lindsay Foreman Managing Editor: Roundup Magazine
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L: Can you share your educational and work background with us? What drew you to art education? K: When I was completing my undergraduate coursework at UBC, I took a textiles course in the education faculty with Penny Goldstone. I was young and I remember coming home and knowing “that is what I want to do when I grow up.” I became an art teacher and taught in Richmond for 10 years. During that time, I completed my Master’s degree and became a Supervisor of Art, which allowed me to teach students from Kindergarten to Grade 12. I also started my Ph.D. at Stanford with Elliot Eisner.
I worked as a faculty advisor for a year at SFU before I took over Penny’s job at UBC, teaching textiles, etc. I hadn’t finished my Ph.D., so I continued to work on it while teaching full time and raising my family. It wasn’t until I started working with graduate students that I realized that museum education was going to be my continued passion. We started a specific museum education program at UBC. I also ran summer art programs at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Museum of Anthropology at UBC for 10 years.
