Collins retires after more than 23 years teaching art at IV
By Jacob Pearson
IV Leader Staff, May 6, 2004
Art instructor Dana Collins will retire this semester after 23 ½ years at IVCC.
Collins, who began teaching at IV in 1981, has taught many courses, including Advanced Drawing, 2-D Design, Painting, Pottery, Art History, 3-D Design, Photography, Sculpture, Visual Communications and Art Fundamentals.
Over the years, Collins has been involved in many art-related activities and programs. She is the Midwest Coordinator of Studio Art for The College Board in addition to being a portfolio evaluator for the Advanced Placement Program of Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J. Collins will also continue to run Collins & Co., her studio/gallery which opened last September.
In her spare time, Collins enjoys gardening and working on her art. Her dream is to do drawings of the different seasons from her boat on the Mississippi River. Collins also plans on doing some radio work, such as her classical music show which she had on WLRZ for many years. She also plays violin for the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra.
Collins, who became a grandmother this past February, plans on spending time with her daughter Jen and her family in San Francisco. Collins said, “My plans for the future are less settled than they had been prior to my husband's death in January. We'd had a lot of places picked out to go traveling in Italy and Ireland, and many other trips in the works for camping, canoeing, and biking -- things I couldn't imagine doing now, without Steve.”
Although Collins is retiring, she still has concerns for the future of the college. One of her concerns is the increasing reliance on part-time faculty. “When I interviewed to come out here,” Collins said, “The president emphasized with pride that IVCC relied on full-time faculty. He was correct that this serves the students much better. We now have many, many more administrators and part-time teachers.”
Collins also has concerns about increasing demands on faculty for non-teaching work.
During her time at IV, Collins has developed many fond memories. She said, “My best experiences at IVCC have been with my students. Teaching art really has to be done on an individual basis, so I've been lucky enough to get to know some very wonderful and talented students who have also become my friends. Lots of my former students are teaching art at our area grade and high schools, and countless others have become professional artists. I feel lucky to have played a part in their lives.”