Art Department
Before the 1950's there was no Art Department in Dallastown School District. The school had a Music Department, but no Art. Mr. Don Abbott Thomas saw a need for an Art Department and moved to York from Philadelphia to head it. According to Mr. Thomas' motto, an artist first sees a problem, then finds a solution to that problem. Mr. Thomas was the solution to the lack of Art at Dallastown.
When asked what were the first type of projects that students completed, Mr. Thomas responded with, "When I found out that I was hired to teach at Dallastown I put an order in, in May for supplies so they could be at school by September. When I got to school in September, the school had never ordered the supplies. I put my order in and nothing arrived until November. With no materials to work with, I looked through the dump, and took scrap wood from factories. The school had an adequate supply of construction paper, but that was all. The first lessons I taught were how to hold a paintbrush and a pencil, divisions of the head, the body in action, and perspective. I taught by examples."
The Art Department has grown and changed a lot since Mr. Thomas was first hired here. "When I first came to Dallastown, I was the only teacher hired. Over the years, more and more teachers were hired because the number of children participating in art grew." Mrs. Joanne Gotwalt, who is a present teacher at Dallastown, and started working here in 1968, has also seen the number of teachers in the Art Department get larger. "When I started teaching at Dallastown there were only three teachers. Now there are many. We have changed rooms three times since I've been here. The student number has grown a lot, we are now up to about five-hundred students participating in art."
The art equipment has also changed a lot over the years. "When I first came to Dallastown we had old rotten desks that didn't work well to draw on. The desks had large drawers along the sides. We took out the drawers, placed them upside down on the floor and used them as desks," contributed Mr. Thomas.
"I was in a small room in the basement. It was a dark room and it smelled like rotten eggs. I wanted to cheer it up, so I painted it bright yellow. When the new school was done, I got a new room which wasn't much better than the first. Later on, a new section was added to the school. I made a scale model of the rooms exactly the way I wanted them. The architects did the rooms exactly the way I wanted them. I was all excited, but the school decided to give the new teacher, Mrs. Gotwalt the big room that I wanted for all of my students who were going to be art majors. I got stuck with the small room, but I did the best that I could with it."
"To get ideas for projects, an artist envisions a project, then buys the needed supplies, and goes from there," said Mr. Thomas.
Present Art teachers at Dallastown, Mrs. Brenda Baum, Mrs. Gotwalt, and MRs. Emily Westrick, get their ideas from books, magazines, art shows and galleries, and fellow art teachers.
The art teachers at Dallastown all teach because they love art. "Art is my hobby and I love kids, the two mix well," said Mrs. Gotwalt.
I found that the Art Department at Dallastown has come a long way from when it started out. Dallastown has had many students graduate and go to college as art majors. Art class is a fun class to go to. The teachers are great and the projects are enjoyable. This is a great improvement from having no art department.
