VIDEO: Artists Visit Teitelman for Women’s History Month

ERMA –– A cast of local female artists of varying mediums told 100 eight-graders at Teitelman Middle School about their formative years, education, profession, obstacles and achievements at a discussion panel moderated by Gail Schmidtchen, guidance counselor, March 14 in recognition of Women’s History Month.
“This is a group of phenomenal women who are excellent role mod-els,” Schmidtchen said.
For the past 12 years Schmidtchen has hosted annual student seminars to commemorate Women’s History Month. Schmidtchen told the Herald this is her last seminar because she is retiring this year.
As part of the National Women’s History Project she used the theme ‘Women’s Art, Women’s Vision’ for this year’s discussion panel. She introduced the five-member panel and explained how women were not always welcome in the realm of art and how prejudice still exists today.
Cheryl Crews, a visual artist, said she was once told that she “paints like a man,” but she stressed the importance of committing herself to her medium. Crews teaches art classes at Atlantic Cape Community College and through the Center for Community Arts.
“I love my work be-cause I am able to be creative and observe life,” she said.
Crews said art gives her an excuse to day-dream and one of her favorite hobbies since childhood has been finding four-leaf clovers. She said her parents realized her creativity at an early age and encouraged her to explore art.
Susannah Newman teaches through a much different medium as a dancer and choreographer.
“I was an extremely active child with a lot of energy. I grew up in Manhattan and my mom worried when I would do kart-wheels down Fifth Avenue so she put me in dance classes when I was four years old,” Newman said.
Newman told students there are many forms of dance and “there is a dancer in all of us.”
“Cultivate your imagination because you will take it with you in whatever you do whether it is science, law or politics,” she said.
Newman created a wireless camera she wears on her forehead to film dancers as they move from scraps of other cameras.
Lois Smith, a jazz singer, said she started with music because as a child she “couldn’t keep her mouth shut.” She took piano lessons as a child and would mimic the notes she played.
Smith spoke vividly about when she met the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, the first black women allowed to sing at the White House, when she performed at the Diamond Beach Club in Wildwood.
“I was 14 years old and I’ll never forget it. I told her I was a singer too and she asked me to sing for her. I was so scared,” she said. “She told me to cultivate my voice and be persistent because no matter how good you are someone isn’t going to like it.”
Smith used the television show American Idol as an example of people showing persistence.
“Find you niche but be versatile. Try more than one thing and you may surprise yourself,” she said.
Patricia MacDonald told students how she came to be a mystery novelist. Her writing career began as a journalist but she would fabricate details of her stories so she concluded, “fiction was a better fit.”
Journalism school taught her “there is no such thing as writers block because you must be able to produce. Women in the arts need to be practical, imaginative, take criticism and adapt with it,” she said.
Patti Chambers, an ac-tress with the East Lynn Theater Company, has been on stage for over 25 years. She was active in theater in school and was inspired to pursue acting in adulthood after making a trip to Italy and discovering the art of physical dance theater.
“Take classes in all of the arts because they are all interdisciplinary and you never know where you will go,” Chambers said. She said she is “proud to be resilient” and has taken many odd jobs to make ends meet like waitressing and working in the news-room of National Public Radio.
“It allows me to learn of people from all walks of life and portray those characters,” she said.
Students requested demonstration performances but the panel declined.
Though the women express themselves though different mediums they shared a common message for the students that versatility, commitment, imagination, and creative approaches are the key to being successful while doing something they enjoy and are passionate about.
Contact Truluck at (609) 886-8600 Ext 24 or at: ltruluck@cmcherald.com