The University of Wyoming Art Museum has initiated a pilot project that brings a full-time Master Teacher to the museum’s education program this year. Funds for this project were raised at a July 19th event hosted by Richard and Judith Agee in their home in Jackson, Wyoming.
The Master Teacher Pilot Project will provide increased opportunities for K-16 students and teachers statewide to utilize the University Art Museum’s resources in support of their own learning and teaching objectives. It will offer regular teaching opportunities for pre-service students and enriched teaching opportunities for graduate students. It will enable interdisciplinary connections and lessons with support curricular materials and study guides which will be available on the museum’s webpage. It will also establish an on-going relationship between students and the museum, and it will encourage them to regularly participate in museum-sponsored programs.
The Master Teacher for this pilot project is Diane Panozzo, an experienced teacher who brings twenty-eight years of experience in Wyoming schools to the position. Most recently she was an instructor of English 1010 and an instructor in the Synergy program at the University of Wyoming. Before that she spent eighteen years teaching in Laramie County School District at East High School in Cheyenne, and another eleven years at Kelly Walsh High School and Roosevelt Center in Casper, Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Central Wyoming College in Riverton, Poudre High School in Fort Collins, Colorado, Durango High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Hammond Gavit High School in Hammond, Indiana. Diane taught English, speech and debate, theatre, International Baccalaureate Language A1, AP English, screenwriting, creative writing, and acting I and II. She helped to establish State Standards and Assessments in English, and in speech and drama. She was awarded the Wyoming Arts Council’s Literary Arts Fellowship in 2003 and was nominated for the Governor’s Art Awards in 2005. She is a writer, researcher, and teacher and is most interested in interdisciplinary learning.
Bringing the world of art to Wyoming, the Art Museum is located in the Centennial Complex at 22nd & Willett Drive in Laramie. The Museum and Museum Store are open through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, please call the Art Museum at 307-766-6622 or visit http://www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum
