Meet Arthur Simms
Professor, Director, Fine Arts Program
A Global Perspective
Arthur Simms (r) and
Fine Arts student Thibaut Dapoigny
How do you teach art? Some say it’s not possible, you either have the creative spark or you don’t. LaGuardia Humanities Assistant Professor Arthur Simms views the learning process as a nurturing experience for the student in which the instructor is also transformed. He teaches art to students in his art history and studio classes by sharing his past experience as a budding artist growing up in New York, and his current knowledge as a working artist who has travelled extensively in the U.S. and abroad. He has taught art to students throughout his career, from as young as five years old to college age.
“Teaching is always rewarding,” he says. “Every age level presents different challenges, but you always learn from the experience of imparting your knowledge to someone else. You learn from students.”
A sculptor who works with mixed media, in addition to drawing and painting, he has been an assistant professor in LaGuardia’s Fine Arts Department since 2007. The recipient of numerous awards for his work, including the 2006 Academy Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Professor Simms was selected as the summer 2010 Resident Faculty at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. He earned his M.F.A. and B.A. at Brooklyn College, where he also taught. His work has appeared in group and solo exhibitions, from the local - as part of exhibits in the Brooklyn Museum and the Queens Museum- to the global – through shows in England, Ireland, France and Italy. This winter, his work appeared as part of “The Global Caribbean” show in Miami’s annual Art Basel, a four-day contemporary art fair that draws collectors and art lovers from all over the world.
Born in Jamaica, he was interested in making things from a young age. Using found objects, he made toys, influenced by the homemade carts and contraptions he saw neighbors build to bring goods to sell at the local market. Seeking a better life, his family moved to Brooklyn when he was seven.
“I tell my students, ‘I am you,’” he explains. “I came here from another country too, I went to a CUNY school, I took remedial writing and math classes and had to figure out how to navigate a new culture. If I can do it, you can do it.”
In his own work, he is constantly exploring the boundaries of form. Although known for his work in the round, he does twice as many drawings as sculptures, using elements of bas-relief and collage that widen his definition of what constitutes a drawing.
New York was a boundless resource for his widening curiosity about art. He visited museums, sought out like minds during his school years, and absorbed the overflowing diversity and history New York offered in culture and in art. He now exposes his students to the same advantages he benefited from as he developed his craft, first sharing the work of the masters in the classroom via slides and books, and then visiting the museums that house them on a class field trip.
“The first art history class I taught at LaGuardia was amazing,” he marvels. “I counted 13 languages spoken in that class. I like students to bring their culture into assignments, since we have the rainbow of the world here at LaGuardia. There are a variety of ways into a style, or the articulation of self, and bringing individual culture into it makes it a richer statement.”