Finlandia BFA Ceramics Grad Combines Art and Teaching

August 13, 2009

HANCOCK, MI - Colleen (Trail) Carroll of Calumet has successfully combined her love for teaching and fine art.

A 2009 Finlandia University ceramics and glass design BFA graduate, Carroll will co-teach a section of Introduction to Visual and Plastic Arts (ARD100) as an adjunct instructor this fall at Finlandia.

Carroll explains that ARD 100 gives freshman-level students exposure to each of the Finlandia art studios - ceramics, studio arts, fiber arts, product design, graphic design - encouraging them to discover their preferred artistic medium early in their undergraduate education.

Carroll coordinated and directed this year's Summer Arts Camp at the Copper Country Community Arts Center, Hancock, for which she enlisted the assistance of several additional Finlandia BFA students and graduates to present two week-long day camps featuring beginning and advanced art classes for youth of all ages.

Carroll was employed as a work-study student in the Finlandia ceramics studio for three years, and she was a teacher's assistant for Phyllis Fredendall, associate professor of fiber arts. Her additional work experience includes three years as a waitress at the Michigan House, Calumet, and teaching clay classes and Kids Make Art classes at the Community Arts Center. She designed the 2008 and 2009 awards for the annual City of Hancock's annual Canal Run, and the 2008 award for the 2008 Keweenaw Cup.

Her artwork been displayed at the Finlandia University Gallery and the Community Arts Center, and her pottery is available at the Studio 41 gallery in Copper Harbor, Mich.

Carroll was born in Redford, Mich, and grew up in Columbia, Tenn. She completed a bachelor of science degree in interdisciplinary studies and K-8 education at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn., and taught fourth and fifth grade for two years in Tennessee.

She and her husband, Scott, a graduate student at Michigan Technological University, moved to the Copper Country in 2006. Carroll's mother was born in Calumet.

For additional information about the Finlandia University International School of Art & Design, please contact ISAD dean Denise Vandeville at 906-487-7379 or denise.vandeville@finlandia.edu.