Mabel D’Amico (1909-1998): Reminiscences From the Past

Abstract

From the 1920s through the 1940s, a number of artist-teachers developed methods of creative self-expression in their teaching. The life and teachings of artist and art educator Mabel D’Amico (1909-1998), wife of Museum of Modern Art museum educator Victor D’Amico, are considered within this context. This article attempts to construct an educational biography of Mabel D’Amico using oral history as a primary method. While Victor D’Amico’s story as an art educator has been told, Mabel D’Amico’s story has remained in his shadow. Through her work and personal philosophy Mabel D’Amico attempted to create closer relationships among her students, the school, and the students’ home and community. Thus, understanding Mabel D’Amico’s life as an artist and an educator can be a powerful way to uncover hidden histories of artist-teachers and women leaders from the era of pedagogical progressives in art education history.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author thanks Judith Burton for introducing the Art Barge, Christopher Kohan and Marcia Cohl for their time for long interviews, and Mary Ann Stankiewicz, Mary Sullivan, Lauren Gould, and Gabriella Oldham for their support during this project.

FUNDING

The author thanks the National Art Education Foundation for a research grant that made this ongoing research project possible.

Notes

¹ www.aaa.si.edu/collections/items/detail/students-free-art-class-harlem-art-center-290-knox-avenue-12041

² No evidence has yet been identified on the specific connections between Boas and Mabel at Teachers College or in the Mabel D’Amico materials in Amagansett. The process of tracking down Mabel’s students is underway. This ongoing research project was made possible through an NAEF Grant I received in 2014. I have traveled to Amagansett, NY, regularly to conduct work in the archives and 2-hour digitally recorded interviews (then transcribed professionally). My hope is to conclude the research in Fall 2018 and follow up with a second article. No Institutional Revew Board approval was required for this research.

³ Neal Fink, a retired priest, and a friend of the Barge who later became a Trustee was asked to speak at Mabel’s burial as a priest and a friend and someone who was familiar with funerals and burials. He normally would have read from a Bible during a ceremony but because of Mabel’s nonreligious beliefs he looked toward the dictionary instead of the Bible.

Additional information

Funding

The author thanks the National Art Education Foundation for a research grant that made this ongoing research project possible.