Greenville College Annual Report 2002-03

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Women

Coming with an arsenal that includes undergraduate and graduate degrees from two Ivy League schools, third year Greenville College assistant professor of art Lara Scott has certainly aided in shaping and molding the Art Department into what it offers today.

Originally born in Dunoon, Scotland, where her father served in the United States Navy, Scott and her family returned to the U.S. while she was a baby. She attended prep school in Connecticut, and then enrolled at Yale University where she majored in art. During her stint at Yale, she joined the Yale Christian Fellowship, committing her life to Jesus Christ at the age of 19.

Scott moved to Washington, D.C. after graduating in 1990 and soon found employment as a research assistant in the curatorial division at the National Museum of American Art. She lived in D.C. for five years and then headed west where she worked at the University of California at San Diego and did free lance work as a graphic designer.

Still seeking her true calling, Scott began to reassess her career goals and considered a return to academe after experiencing a friend's show. In the fall of '98, she enrolled in the master of fine arts (M.F.A.) program at the University of Pennsylvania.

“The most consistent thing over eight to nine years (after graduating from Yale) was making art on my own and pursuing that,” said Scott. “It took a long time for me to say this is who I am, this is what I want to do, and it's worth pursuing.”

In graduate school, Scott offered six exhibitions in a variety of settings and taught for the first time as a teaching assistant. After receiving her degree in May 2000, she attended the Pew Graduate Summer Seminars at the University of Notre Dame. The seminars sought Christian scholars at secular schools to prompt them to consider teaching in the Christian setting.

While attending the seminar, Scott connected with Greenville for the first time when she met Guy Chase, who was an art professor for G.C. at the time. Planning to be away from Greenville during the spring of 2001, Chase asked Scott to fill in. She agreed, and joined Greenville College soon afterwards as an adjunct faculty member.

In her first term, Scott taught digital photography, digital imaging, and a seminar course in the history of animation. She also advised senior art majors who were preparing for their thesis shows.

“Teaching at first was a segue to make money to produce work,” she said. “But coming to Greenville, it became a bigger commitment than that. It's getting involved in students' lives.”

When Chase accepted a teaching position at Bethel (Minn.) College, Steve Heilmer , art department chair, invited Scott to apply for the position. She did so, becoming a full-time member of the faculty for the 2001-02 academic year.

“Now in her third year, Lara has shown to be a good friend and mentor to many of her students,” said Heilmer. “She continues Guy's legacy of challenging our students with great care and respect, continuing also to achieve qualitative results we've come to expect from our students over the course of our department's history. We are very fortunate to have her here with us at G.C.”

With a strong interest in video and film, Scott has become instrumental in teaching in the digital media program, adding instruction in digital video and graphic design to her résumé. Yet she still desires to accomplish more in video and film by producing her own film and teaching more classes in this area at Greenville .

“I would like to make a film,” said Scott. “I've been talking about it for two years, and my guess is that it will take another five years to actually make it. Video is a strong interest for many of our students. I'd like to see us develop that further in our department and in digital media.”

Being a part of an art department that only includes two other faculty members in Heilmer and Sharon Davis offers its share of challenges, but Scott still sees the department as a strong one.

“I think our strength (as an art department) is that you can do anything in this program, but we need to keep in mind that our strength is building strong basic skills and conceptual skills. It's kind of amazing in a program this small that we are strong both in building foundational skills and in teaching students to be independent makers.”

Students, too, recognize her strengths.

“Lara really pushes her students to make the best possible work they can make,” said junior Jake Torbeck, a digital media major. “Every project requires either revision upon revision or an exigent process of creation. The hard work pays off, though. I think Lara does a wondrous job of impressing upon us the value of all the hard work we put into making our art.”

Moving into the V. W. Maves Art Center in the fall of 2003 has certainly aided the department's momentum. Today they have merged facilities from Archer Hall and the Kelsey Building under one roof.

“There's a lot of energy that comes from having everyone in the same building so that people can see what's going on and respond,” said Scott. “It fosters more ideas.”

Scott's contributions to Greenville College fused with a solid faculty and benefits of the Maves Art Center certainly make Greenville's art department an attractive option for undergraduate students and will continue to transform the lives of students in the years ahead.

Last updated: January 9, 2004