By Courtney Wicker
Elm Staff Writer
- Photo courtesy of Priyanka Parikh
This fall, Washington College has welcomed several new additions, including Gus, Martha’s Kitchen, and a sizable new freshman class.
Along with all these newcomers is a new professor for the WC art department, Professor Heather Harvey. She teaches classes in painting and fundamentals, and is beginning her year with WC teaching studio art.
Harvey grew up in Syracuse, New York, then earned her Bachelor’s Degree in anthropology from the University of Buffalo. She then received her Master of Fine Arts from Virginia Comonwealth Univ. and her Master of Arts from College of William & Mary.
Her husband, Tom Goyens, is a faculty member at Salisbury University.
She has led a very colorful life, and has even traveled to Egypt for archeology digs.
This vibrancy is reflected in her WC office, where she has a piece of her own work hanging on the wall behind her desk.
“I’ve always been interested in art. As a little girl I was always an art nerd,” Harvey said. “I’m very interested in what’s happened on the walls before I got here. I can tell where things were hung up before.”
Harvey has a strong love for teaching.
“I’m a naturally sort of curious person. I love learning, I love turning people onto ideas. I’ve had some really good instructors in my life and some really horrible ones. And I see what a difference it can make in someone’s life. It also feeds me as well,”
Harvey said.
Harvey joined the WC art department particularly excited about being back on the East Coast.
“I wanted to be back on the East Coast, back near all the cities,” she said.
She has a particular fondness for New York City.
“I adore walking through cities, getting lost, then found, all the happy unplanned events along the way. With time and attentiveness you can develop a feel for the particular character of a city and its inhabitants,” Harvey said. “Of course I enjoy taking in the wealth of cultural experiences [like] plays, exhibitions, lectures, good food, but more than this, I dearly love soaking up the unplanned cultural synergies of city life with myself as a largely anonymous participant.”
In addition to her love of cities, she has several plans for her future at WC and her career as an artist.
“I need to find out more information on the [artist’s union] here on campus,” she said. “I have an upcoming group show at The Painting Center in New York this January. I also look forward to spending long gratifying hours in my studio making new work.”