We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anna Wallace a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Anna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The most meaningful work I’ve ever done as an artist/educator was teaching for the North Carolina Governor’s School. This is a 6 week residential summer program for rising high school seniors. All fields of academics and performing arts are represented and I taught visual arts to the 20-4o best art students in the state. Governor’s School students are highly committed to deep engagement in their practice and as an educator, having students who are self-selected, who you don’t have to grade is such a delight. I have fond memories of every student I’ve taught through this program and feel changed by each of them.

My summer curriculum always ended in Social Practice. Students worked alone or in groups around a social or political topic that was important to them and created an interactive artwork to share with the entire campus. Student projects included letter writing campaigns to end gun violence in schools, protest art about the overturn of Roe, performance art about disordered eating, and “vibe readings” where students could have their vibe drawn in an alternative portrait by an artist. Each project from this assignment surprised an amazed me. The most magical part is that it taught young people that they have agency and can create change through art and aesthetics.

Anna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I followed a pretty traditional route of studying art in middle and high school and then getting my BFA in Ceramics from the Cleveland Institute of Art. I spent 3 years after college setting up a studio in my hometown of Durham, NC, making and showing work. I then got my MFA in Studio Art from UNC Greensboro. At UNCG I gained teaching experience and transitioned my studio practice from ceramics to textiles as my primary medium.

I spent 5 years teaching at UNCG, Greensboro College, High Point University, College of the Albemarle, the North Carolina Governor’s School, and Duke Arts Create. I also tried to maintain a studio practice and became a mom during that time. It was very challenging and I didn’t have any job security or make much money.

I loved working with students but teaching after the introduction of AI was less enjoyable. I loved making my art, but I no longer had strong aspirations to sell or show my work at a high level as I thought were my goals in college.

I feel very lucky to have found full time employment as an arts administrator at Duke University. I’ve been the Student Engagement Manager at Duke Arts for almost a year now. I get to work with students, but not as their professor. I have stability and get to work with a great team.

I still make textile work in my home studio and I feel no pressure for it to be anything other than what it is. I make work that I want to make and that feels good to me. Maybe it gets shown, maybe it doesn’t, but the important thing is that I make it. Since becoming a mom, all my work has been centered around the experience of mothering.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My son was born in January of 2021. We were still deep in the pandemic. I remember that my nurses in the hospital had just gotten their first vaccine. I was still an adjunct professor at two colleges and couldn’t afford to take a maternity leave. As an adjunct you have no PTO and no job security. If I took a semester off teaching, I wouldn’t have an income and my job would be given to someone else.

My son was born on the first day of classes and I was answering student emails from the delivery room. My first weeks and months as a mom were spent waking up 4 times a night to nurse and grade 10 assignments at a time throughout the day and night. At the time I knew it was hard but I also felt grateful to be able to teach from home and still have a job during the pandemic.

It’s only years later that I see what a traumatic time this was for me. My memories from that time are foggy. No one should have to work immediately after giving birth or bringing a new child into their family. I think looking back, that was the beginning of the end of freelance work for me. I just couldn’t see continuing long-term in a job that provided me no benefits and no security. I didn’t feel valued in my work because my work didn’t value me and I knew that couldn’t continue.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

In art school it was drilled into me that the only way to be a “real” artist was to get a gallery in NYC and/or get a tenure-track teaching position. The reality is that most art school graduates won’t achieve that. It also turned out that my definition of success didn’t need to include either of those things. In the end, I didn’t have the ambition to strive to reach those milestones. It took a long time, but I don’t see that has a negative anymore. Yes, I could have made different decisions on where to go to graduate school, applied nationally for shows and teaching positions, and made making ambitious work a priority. Even doing all those things I would have needed a significant amount of luck to earn “real” artist status.

It turns out that what matters to me is having a family and being able to help support them financially, and making work that makes me happy with no other goals in mind. Getting signed to a big gallery or earning that coveted tenure-track teaching position are wonderful goals, and I went to college and graduate school with folks who’ve done it. But I learned that my vision of success is different and just as important.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.annawallacemade.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annawallacemade/

Image Credits
Eric Waters