Awards

2011 Distinguished Teaching of Art Award

William Itter, Indiana University

William Itter

William Itter’s gifted teaching approach, dedication to the instruction of freshman students, and curricular innovations in foundations have had a momentous, immeasurable impact on art pedagogy for more than fifty years. During his thirty-seven-year tenure as director of the Fundamentals Studio Program at Indiana University in Bloomington, which he joined in 1969, Itter has mentored several generations of graduate students with insight and commitment, turning them into great artists and teachers from a time when the MFA degree was in its infancy to the present day. He led by example through his commitment to the instruction of freshman and his curricular innovations in the field of foundations. It is rare to find an instructor who is equally gifted in teaching students at both ends of the spectrum, but Itter is a rare individual. Phillip Ayers, one of his accomplished former students stated that his former professor “has always understood the importance of balance between the need for a conceptual framework and the discipline of studio practice.”

In a unique pedagogical approach, Itter has regularly and generously shared his museum-quality collection of ceramics, textiles, baskets, and sculpture with his students as pedagogical tools to help them understand how visual languages have manifested across cultures and times. He also has organized numerous exhibitions of these visually stunning ethnographic resources. Now professor emeritus of fine arts, Itter continues to share his wisdom with students while also exhibiting his own painting and drawing in prestigious venues nationwide. The power of his legacy persists in the generations of artists whom he has inspired with his energy, commitment, generosity, artistic involvement, and intellectual curiosity.

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