Senior Portfolio: Nonfiction Article
By: Caitlin Gaddis
The office of the only art historian at Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) reflects much of her personality. The room’s west-facing window, bookshelves lining the walls, and warm lamp-light give an air of peace and quiet to this space. A cloth-covered corkboard behind the desk displays a collection of interesting prints, posters, and photographs. Dr. Anne Greeley’s seemingly ever-present cup of coffee rests on top of her desk beside a stoneware mug and an aqua-marine hippopotamus sculpture. Snow falls quietly outside.
I sit in a chair angled towards a wooden desk — someone with a designer’s eye purposefully positioned this chair so its occupant feels invited into the space, rather than intimidated. Dr. Greeley sits at her desk, smiling and genuinely expressing her interest in our conversation.
“I know I always liked art. I was always interested in drawing, and painting,” she says. “But maybe the first memory that I have of actually doing something specific, I remember being maybe eight or nine years old—which is kind of late, because I knew I liked art way before then—and being in a watercolor class and doing a watercolor of a topiary plant… And I remember the teacher coming by and telling me I was doing a really good job, I’d kind of figured out a good way to do it, and my friend immediately copying what I was doing. For some reason that sticks out, and that’s probably like the first memory that I have of actually making something.”
The encouragement Dr. Greeley received from her teacher as an eight-year-old still resonates with her today. As the university’s art historian and a general education Fine Arts instructor, Dr. Greeley interacts with hundreds of students each year. As we converse, I learn that Dr. Greeley’s road to become an educator and art historian involved many unpredictable twists and turns. But because of the challenges she overcame, the setbacks she learned from and her passion for art, Dr. Greeley has claimed a spot among the Art + Design Division faculty at Indiana Wesleyan University and established herself as a much-beloved professor.
Originally from Central California, Dr. Greeley attended Westmont College for her undergraduate studies. Long before she attended college, Dr. Greeley realized her love for art-related activities. She compares her tendencies to that of her parents, saying, “I was the poet and they were the scientists.” Dr. Greeley spent her childhood playing piano and dancing ballet. “I think I always just had kind of an instinctive pull towards the arts and humanities, from pretty early on,” she says.
However, Dr. Greeley never considered pursuing studio art because she simply enjoyed creating art as a hobby. Because of her analytical personality, “…it made sense for me to have a job as maybe a writer, or a teacher, or I wanted to be an archaeologist at one point and study history. And so, when I kind of discovered there’s this whole profession where you can look at art all the time, and read about it and learn about it and analyze it, that was the perfect job for me,” she says.
Her love for art history developed during her college years. Dr. Greeley’s eyes light up as she remembers her time as an undergraduate student; she tells me, “…When I got to college and thought that I was going to be like maybe an English teacher, and then I started taking classes from an art historian who was amazing, I thought she was the smartest woman that I’d ever encountered. And I basically loved everything that she taught and wanted to kind of have her job. And so, I started taking every single class that I could.” Her time under the direction of her art history professor impacted her so much that she chose to continue her education at one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious universities.
Although Dr. Greeley had visited England and Paris as a high schooler, and even spent a day in Oxford, England, she never considered attending the University of Oxford. She laughs and grins as she admits that she never intended to apply to that school, but her father printed out the application to Oxford and left it on her bed with a Post-It note. “…And he said, ‘Think of it as a fall-back.’” Dr. Greeley smiles at the memory.
Dr. Greeley wanted to study Renaissance and Medieval art as a graduate student at Oxford but later chose to study Modernism. She completed her Master’s degree in a year, and then began her Doctorate of Philosophy (D.Phil.). But partway through her time as a post-graduate student, her supervisor left and she eventually changed her thesis to study Giorgio de Chirico, an Italian artist who influenced the Surrealist movement.
Though disheartening, these changes allowed Dr. Greeley to gain new perspectives about art history. She reflects positively, “[These changes] opened up my mind a lot to the ways in which one might still be able to appreciate art that one doesn’t agree with necessarily from a religious or ideological standpoint. And it’s also kind of given me a new appreciation for the stuff that I originally appreciated, but for different reasons.”
Our conversation moves easily from an observation about growth through challenging life circumstances to Neoplatonism and the truth of God represented in art. Although the study of Surrealism challenged Dr. Greeley, she learned to appreciate new features about religious and philosophical art. She pauses thoughtfully before sharing her reflections on art and holiness with me. “There’s a Neoplatonic idea,” she begins, “that when you see something visible on earth, in the earthly sphere, that’s beautiful--that this can, through that earthly beauty or kind of that physical beauty, kind of lead you to an understanding of the beauty that God is the source of. And so, I guess I have that kind of attitude, that when I see something that is extremely beautiful to behold, I see this as being some kind of pale reflection of how beautiful God is. And I think that that, more than anything, is maybe how I connect my appreciation of physical beauty in artistic forms to my belief in God as the source of all beauty and truth and goodness.”
Dr. Greeley shares this conviction in her classes, encouraging the hundreds of students she teaches each year to seek the face of God reflected in art and in acts of creation. Though she loves teaching students ranging from general education Fine Arts classes to upper level art history classes, as the only art historian on campus, she faces the challenge of teaching a huge amount of material spanning from prehistoric art to contemporary art.
Regardless, she truly enjoys teaching a variety of students. “For me,” she explains, “I really like getting a chance to engage with students all across the university who are studying very different things. So, I like hearing the perspective of a math major on something that we’re talking about, on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel paintings, or I like hearing the perspective of the Psychology major on Van Gogh’s color studies. I think also it’s exciting for me to see some students get excited about something they didn’t know a lot about and maybe didn’t think that they liked.”
One of her former Fine Arts students, Ben Snoek, works as a student graphic designer for The Firm, a graphic design business on IWU’s campus. A graduate student with a B.A. in Worship Arts, Snoek said, “Before I took Fine Arts, I think that my understanding of art was very limited to how we use it, in modern contexts—how we would use it in, say, advertising… But I think that what I gained in Fine Arts is that I realized that art has such a wide-spreading history that if we understand it and understand the motivation behind certain movements, it can really inform how we do art today.”
Kendra Frieden, a senior Business and Pre-Physical Therapy major, echoed Snoek’s words, saying, “Her perspective taught me to really look for real art that takes just thought to put like really good meaning in it.” Senior Biology and Pre-Medicine major, Brock Goeglein, referred to how this class influenced his understanding of science, saying, “…science is, in a way, a type of art, and it can be viewed the way that God created the human body, that God was kind of like an artist in that.” He learned to apply his understanding of art to his understanding of God’s creative design for the human body.
Snoek reminded me that the study of Fine Arts applies to all students, saying, “It’s really made me reevaluate my way of analyzing these different art mediums that we see on a daily basis. It really is one of those classes that changes how we view the world.”
Indiana Wesleyan University aspires to give students an educational experience that equips them to change the world; Dr. Greeley’s teaching, in the words of several students, does just this. Dr. Greeley’s personal commitment to this goal of excellence shone through in conversations with students. Dr. Greeley engages the classroom well, according to students and the Art + Design Division Chair, Ron Mazellan. Additionally, he believes Dr. Greeley is approachable enough to serve as a mentor for students.
Dr. Greeley and Mazellan met in California when the Art + Design department was searching for a candidate to fill the university’s art historian position. “And she’s just been this amazing faculty member,” he added, “who brings a level of intelligence and a level of challenge for students that I think brings out the best in them.”
Mazellan also values Dr. Greeley’s constant pursuit of knowledge. He said of her contribution to the division, “She expands her scholarship. She… presented at Yale. So, expanding scholarship is a huge deal. Annie is not someone to gloat about accomplishments like that; she humbly does them, but she’s got a great presence. Obviously her degree, her Ph.D.’s from Oxford, so she obviously has a very global view of the world and that type of diverse education.” With such a well-educated and cultured background, Greeley brings a level of professionalism and diverse thinking to the IWU community, which is a huge asset to the university.
Clearly, Dr. Greeley serves with a standard of excellence that IWU faculty members and students are encouraged to uphold throughout their lives. In addition to her many capabilities, Greeley gives sound advice for future educators. “I think the advice that I would give is that it’s always helpful to tell students why it’s valuable to learn what you’re teaching. And I think that makes a really big difference in classes like a fine arts class, that’s required and a lot of students coming in don’t really see why they’re being made to take it or why it’s of value. And I think sometimes just simply kind of explaining why we’re doing what we’re doing can make a big impact on students’ willingness to receive the information.”
Dr. Greeley’s depth of thought and genuine personality radiates both in front of the classroom and in person. At one point in our conversation, Dr. Greeley leans back in her chair, pauses momentarily, and says, “People, I think, are capable of much more than they think because I think we try something and we’re not immediately good at it, and we think ‘It’s not for me’ but it is true that if you really work hard and you try and you persist that I think you can become quite good at a lot of things that you’re not naturally adept at.”
Stop by her office sometime—she’ll likely have the lamps lit, a cup of coffee in her hand, and invite you to sit down. You might discuss the recent change in temperatures, share a funny story, or contemplate the holiness of God captured in art. This brilliant professor truly captures the educational and personal excellence Indiana Wesleyan University stands for.
Caitlin is a senior Strategic Communications and Writing student from Knoxville, Tennessee. She's passionate about education and advocacy, design, and business development. In her free time, she enjoys reading, traveling, listening to podcasts, and hiking in the Smokies. Caitlin hopes to work in a PR agency, business consulting firm or in a creative project management position after graduation. You can probably find her at a coffeeshop drinking way too much coffee, making detailed to-do lists and dreaming up her next travel plans.