Professor
Aaron Baldwin
2006
Excellence in Teaching Award Recipient
Professor
Aaron Baldwin began teaching at Charleston Southern University
in the fall of 1999. After earning a BS in Graphic Communications
and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Clemson University,
Professor Baldwin taught as an adjunct at Clemson and the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte - always dreaming
of going home to the sleepy fishing village of McClellanville
where he grew up.
Baldwin's
roots run deep in McClellanville, with family ties going
back to the Morrisons, one of the founding families in
the mid 1800s. He describes an idyllic childhood in the
salt marshes of the small, isolated village, where going
barefoot in the summertime was the norm, and he had to
borrow a pair of shoes to go to a movie. His father is
well-known writer and local eccentric, William " Billy" Baldwin.
After Professor Baldwin's wife finished her degree at UNC
Charlotte, and daughter, Marina, was on the way, the urge
to return to his roots grew even stronger. He packed up
his family and moved back to McClellanville, where he worked
doing architectural restoration for three years. The desire
to teach persisted, but he had almost given up on finding
a position that would allow him to remain in McClellanville.
In
1999, Baldwin says he picked up the local paper and scanned
the classified ads, something he had never routinely done,
and there was an ad for a position at Charleston Southern
University, teaching art appreciation, printmaking, design,
drawing, and painting – a perfect "fit" for
his background and talents. The Christian environment was
also a plus. Professor Baldwin believes that “on
an aesthetic level, all art is Christian.” One of
the members of the CSU search committee was Mrs. Linda "Sweetheart" Tyler,
who owns a summer home in McClellanville. Everything fell
into place.
During
his years at CSU, Professor Baldwin has earned the admiration
of students and fellow faculty members. When asked about
his teaching style, he admitted that he had often pondered
how the teaching of art could be translated to other disciplines
since it involves two extremes – from the large and
largely-impersonal art appreciation classes, where enrollment
of 75 students is not uncommon, to the one-on-one, very
personal studio art classes. While evaluations from both
types of courses have been positive, he confesses that
the odds are "stacked in my favor," particularly
for studio art, where students really want to take his
classes and where it's hard not to have a good time. He
has found that the teaching style of his own instructors,
however, does not work well with CSU students. He notes
that the antifoundationalism or free spirit educational
attitudes of the1960s and 70s, the era in which many of
his professors were educated, had hit the art field even
earlier. It was a do-what-you–want-to-do approach
to art that his students find unsettling and unsatisfying.
He says that his present-day students crave more structure
and more definitive criticism, which he tries to provide
in a very positive way. The key, he says, is to treat students
with respect.
Professor
Baldwin is also an accomplished “working” artist.
He particularly enjoys oil painting and wood sculpture.
His work has been shown in numerous juried venues all over
the country, and he has had one-person and group exhibits
around the region, including the City Gallery in Charleston.
Two of his paintings are in South Carolina’s State
Art Collection in Columbia.
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