A night at M.I.A with Art Teacher

Lucina Mendez
December 2, 2009
Dickerson Feature



Greg Dickerson met his students near the Children’s theater outside the Minnesota Institute of Arts. He has his cell phone in one hand, to direct students in case they got lost. He knows this area well as he is a teacher at Minneapolis College of Art and Design- A private art and design college where he also earned his masters-is around the coroner from the museum.

Dickerson also teaches for Anoka Ramsey Community college at Elk River High School, and his class is a kaleidoscope of people. The ages of his student’s ranges through four decades, possibly five, but one thing most of them have in common is their instructor, who never fails to confront them with new and innovative artists to consider.

Dickerson set his students loose on the museum, armed with maps, some traveling in groups, others set out to traverse the huge building alone. They were instructed to walk the museum, until it was time to view the opening for Michael Kareken, and his paintings and drawings of bottles and loose mechanical parts.

The M.I.A is a tri-floored behemoth of a museum with a landscaped court yard, and thousands of pieces of art. Founded in 1883 by 25 residents of Minneapolis, the M.I.A has gone through many transformations, and additions. The Target Wing-it’s most recent addition- includes thirty-four galleries, and an additional 4o percent of exhibition space. The expansion also included a new Lecture Hall, Photographs Study Room, Print Study Room, and an Art Research Library


More than half a million people visit the M.I.A each year and its permanent collection houses around eighty thousand objects. The free admission policy makes it possible for people from all walks of life to visit the museum, and see a Van Gough, and currently during it’s Louvre exhibition, a sketch by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Dickerson says he first fell in love with art as a child growing up in Ohio, “My mom dragged me to art shows and bought a lot of art. The first piece I fell in love with was a Jacob Lawrence; can't remember the title of the piece, but it was a series of paintings. I saw it at the Karamu House in Cleveland.”

It was as a student at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania earning his Bachelors in fine arts that Dickerson first decided to teach art, “My goal was to educate myself and have my work grow and create a visual language, and to be able to share my love of art with others. I can't imagine I could teach anything else.”

“I prefer to paint at night,” says Dickerson. “I use a mixed media method of painting. I also use abandoned fabrics I got years ago from my grandmother, and a combination of acrylic and oil paints.” Mixed media refers to using different approaches and materials on one piece of art.

When Dickerson became the father of 6-year-old Ezra, and 2-year-old Dow he had to learn to shift things around to accommodate his new family, “I had to get a studio. I couldn't work in the house anymore. I had to start prioritizing, but it has also allowed me to remember childhood, which has made the work more playful and fun.”

The challenges he faces as an artist are the problems the face most aspiring artists. Finding patrons can be a difficult process, as it requires someone believing in you vision, enough to be willing to finance it. The materials that go into creating art works can often be costly. Another problem facing artists is the need to stay fresh and creative, while knowing what else is going on in the art world.

The next thing Dickerson would like to accomplish is having his own show in New York. When asked if he has ever dreamed of becoming a world renowned artist, he answers, “Not hoped. I'm pretty real about the chances of that happening.”

His favorite artists, Philip Guston, Jean Michael Basquait, Terry Winters, John Chamberlain, Max Beckmann, and Jacob Lawrence are all modern abstract artists that often use vivid colors.

As Dickerson meets his students near the rotunda on the second floor of the M.I.A on that third Thursday of the month, an evening when the museum is brimming with people- eager to see the Louvre exhibition and hear the live music-they are confronted with a wall sized oil painting that looks like real bottles cascading off the canvas. Many students were waiting for Dickerson to walk them through the exhibit, and explain why the art was good or bad, interesting, or uninteresting, but he said he wasn’t interested in telling them what to think about it, only that they take the time to think about it, and come up with their own opinions.