Hank Margeson's Shared Story
What is Your Background with UNG?
I started teaching at North Georgia College in 1988. Originally & for the first year or so, I only taught part time - photography and yearbook faculty advisor. Eventually this morphed into an Assistant Professor teaching position.
North Georgia College was interested in building a photography program and I was also looking for a dynamic opportunity to do the same. Meeting Bob Owens, Tommye Scanlin, and Win Cranell, the entrenched Art Department faculty was comforting, even uplifting. They welcomed me into the family. Already there was a vibrant buzz among the students. This felt right.
Bob was the department head. He gave me the freedom to develop the photography curriculum and the support to encourage and facilitate its growth. There was clearly a demand for the photography concentration. We all wore many hats of course.
Besides teaching photography, I was gallery director, interim department head, art education supervisor & teacher, taught Art Survey many semesters, also taught drawing, art history, 2D, art marketing, maybe more. Not all these at once, but over the better part of two decades. ( I left in 2008 & retired the following year)
I arranged studies abroad in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and London. I’m most fortunate to have been involved in these early stages of the art department. We expanded rapidly and eventually began enlisting skilled adjunct faculty to help with the growing demand for art classes.
What is a Memorable Story about the Department You Would like to Share?
The relationships shared as faculty was enriching, supportive, and dynamic. Bob Owens was respected as an administrator as well as celebrated for his work with clay. Win Crannell and Tommye Scanlin are inspiring teachers and tireless innovators in their fields. It was stimulating and challenging and refreshing to work alongside these artists and friends.
Studies abroad are powerful opportunities to grow and understand. My students who stood on the Salisbury Plain contemplating Stonehenge grasped an understanding of the enormity and mystery of these erections and their creators that is not as readily available looking at a projected image in a darkened auditorium.
Teaching photography by example was the way I knew. I opened doors, helped develop a foundation and sense of historical perspective, and demanded student’s best efforts. I’m richer now because of them. Some took their problem solving skills into areas other than art. Some now teach art, make art, and live art.