Westphal brings European art and history lessons back to Culver

 

Art instructor Diana Westphal is bringing new perspectives back to Culver Academies after a 10-day summer tour of some of Europe's most renowned museums, historic sites and artistic centers.

Westphal, who teaches ceramics at Culver, an elite leadership-oriented boarding school in northern Indiana, traveled through the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium to deepen her understanding of art, architecture and design while finding new ways to enrich her classes.

“I travel extensively just because I love experiencing new places, but this trip specifically I chose because of the art and architecture in the region," Westphal said.

The trip, supported in part by Culver Academies through professional development funding, included visits to Amsterdam's world-famous Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, a pottery center in Delft, Roman architectural sites in Germany and artistic landmarks in Belgium.

One highlight was visiting the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, home to the world's largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh. Westphal was able to see paintings she had never viewed in person, including "The Potato Eaters" and "Almond Blossom."

 

 

She said seeing the paintings firsthand offers a perspective that reproductions cannot provide.

"You can actually see the physical paint coming off of the surface," Westphal said. "You don't get that in a photo."

She said Van Gogh's work offers lessons that extend across artistic disciplines.

"He's just a very prolific art historical figure," she said. "When you go and see his paintings in person they are so textured because he applied the paint very thickly and it applies to surface and ceramics where the kids can manipulate the clay in the same way or his color schemes as well."

She also visited the Rijksmuseum, one of Europe's premier art institutions and home to masterpieces by Dutch artists including Rembrandt. One of the works she most wanted to see was Rembrandt's famous "The Night Watch."

Although the painting was undergoing restoration during her visit, Westphal was fascinated by the museum's interpretation and conservation efforts. As director of Culver's galleries, she paid close attention to how the museum presented information to visitors.

"It was kind of cool to be able to bring that back," she said. "I'm like, ‘Oh, I can do that with some of the paintings we have here.’ "

Another stop with direct connections to her teaching was Delft, a Dutch city known worldwide for its blue-and-white pottery.

Westphal toured a Delftware pottery facility, observed the production process and purchased authentic pieces that she plans to share with students.

"I actually have authentic Delftware I can bring in and show the students this is what Delftware looks like," she said.

 

 

Delftware's signature blue decoration is created with cobalt and transformed during firing, a process Westphal said mirrors techniques students can explore in the ceramics studio.

"It is just the white on a blue glaze," she said. "They still have painters that will create the forms by hand using molds and then they paint the blue on and then glaze. It's all done by hand."

The trip also included visits to places associated with artists whose work students encounter in art history, including those of Johannes Vermeer in Delft and Peter Paul Rubens in Brussels.

For Westphal, visiting the places where artists lived and worked adds a new dimension to understanding their contributions.

"It was just walking the streets where he lived, like he (Rubens) was actually here hundreds of years ago," she said. "It's again just experiencing the art where it was made and where it was intended to be viewed."

Westphal also explored Trier, Germany, a city known for its well-preserved Roman architecture. While architecture is not a specific course she teaches, she sees strong connections between architectural design and ceramics.

"Being in the ceramic studio, ceramics is very three-dimensional, and you can take the architectural forms and relate those to builds and ceramics because you can easily replicate those forms using the media of clay," she said.

The journey also included historical sites connected to World War II, including the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and memorials in Luxembourg and Belgium honoring Allied efforts during the war.

"It was very powerful being there," Westphal said.

She said that is knowledge she can use as a teacher.

"And it very much relates to what I do here in terms of just directing the galleries as well as in my teaching," she said.

From standing before Van Gogh masterpieces to observing centuries-old pottery techniques in Delft, Westphal said the trip reinforced the value of learning through firsthand experience.

"As you're teaching, you're like, 'And you know what? I went to Germany and this is what I saw,' " she said.

Westphal said the more experiences she can bring back to Culver, the more opportunities students have to connect classroom lessons to the wider world.