Diana Hampe

Diana Hampe is a veteran teacher with 36 years of public school experience. She began her career by teaching seventh- and eighth-grade art for 13 years at South Junior High in Brockton, Massachusetts, followed by 23 years teaching studio courses for grades 9-12 at Walpole (MA) High School. During her time at Walpole, Diana is credited with building the sequential art program that grew from six to 20 sections of art, thereby offering students the opportunity to enroll in levels I and II Drawing, Design, and 3D courses, before moving on to level III/AP Studio Art: Drawing, 2D Design, or 3D Design. In 1997, Diana was named the Visual Arts Curriculum Coordinator K–12 for Walpole Public Schools. She remained active in this role while continuing her teaching responsibilities in Drawing and Painting I, II, III, and Advanced Placement Studio Art: Drawing until 2009.

Additionally, in 2004, Diana was asked to teach the on-campus Secondary Methods course in art education for the undergraduate and graduate Boston University APA art education degree, and she has resumed the role each spring semester until 2014. In the summer of 2009, she wrote the Curriculum Planning course for Boston University’s online art education master’s degree and transitioned to teaching and evaluating future art educators in the fall. In 2014, Diana was asked to teach Introduction to Art Education, a required course for SED education majors, and in 2015 Processes and Structures was added to her on-campus teaching. In fall 2021 Diana taught the Seminar course and in spring 2022 she has resumed teaching Secondary Methods. Furthermore, Diana has designed and presented professional development workshops for local communities serving as an education consultant for The Education Cooperative.

Diana’s commitment to art education is reflected in her students’ work and accomplishments. Each year her students have received Massachusetts Scholastic Art Awards. These students include Gold Key recipients who received national awards. Two students were chosen to represent Massachusetts in the Congressional Art competition—their work exhibited at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Over the years Diana’s students competed, six Walpole High School students were selected to receive the Marie Walsh Sharpe Summer Seminar scholarship to attend the intensive two-week drawing and painting workshop in Colorado. Through annual trips to New York City museums, custom art tours of England, France, and Italy, and guest artists, Diana broadened students’ exposure to art. Similarly, Diana worked to bring art into the lives of community members. In addition to the annual District Art Show, Diana organized an annual K–12 Stages of Artistic Development exhibit hosted by Barnes & Noble. In 1993, she initiated a corporate connection with Tyco-Kendall Healthcare (now Covidien) that brought the Art at Work Exhibition Series into corporate headquarters and scholarship awards to her student artists. In 2007 collaborating with BU graduate student Jun Gao to compare art education practices, Diana organized three international art exchanges with high school students in Beijing, China.

Diana’s background includes ongoing studio practice in drawing, painting, and collage, exhibition in juried shows, memberships in professional organizations, administrative positions, exhibitions, conference presentations, and numerous awards. In 2004, she received a Teacher Institute in Contemporary Art fellowship from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is also an AP Studio art exam reader and has received an invitation to grade the Studio Art portfolios each year since 2003. Most recently, Diana was invited to Beijing, China, to be the keynote speaker for a two-day teacher training workshop held at Peking University. Asked to explain how art educators plan a curriculum that follows standards and to provide examples of how it looks in practice for grades K-9, Diana shared select curriculums designed by students in AR 620 along with student work from her colleagues and on-campus students in Introduction to Art Education and Processes and Structures.

During her career, Diana has presented at NAEA conferences in Boston, Chicago, Florida, and Minnesota. She chaired Youth Art Month for Massachusetts from 1981-83 and has served on and co-chaired the Massachusetts Scholastic Art Awards Advisory Council. In addition, Diana acted as a Scholastic Art Awards jurist in New Hampshire, a panelist for Art All-State in Massachusetts, and as an evaluator on NEASC accreditation teams for Reading Memorial High School and Stoneham High School.

Having earned her BA from Regis College and an MFA in art education from Boston University, and having enjoyed a semester of study in Florence, Italy—as well as numerous studio practice professional development workshops, group, and solo exhibitions—Diana brings authentic experience to Boston University’s art education program.

Awards

Among her many noteworthy accomplishments, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design chose Diana as the recipient of the Award for Excellence in Education—honoring her at its 2007 graduation ceremony and exhibiting her landscape paintings and the work of her students in the Arnheim Gallery. Diana received a Jurist Choice Award for a collage in the 2019 Attleboro Art Museum’s members show. The Plymouth Art Guild awarded her pastel drawing an honorable mention in its annual juried exhibit in 2010, and the Neponset River Watershed Association presented her with a second-place award for her landscape painting in the River Art Exhibit in 2001. A landscape painting was chosen for the NAEA Virtual Exhibition in 2019 and in 2020. Diana was named Massachusetts Outstanding Art Educator by the MAEA in 1985 and 2002, and also by the Massachusetts Alliance for the Arts in 1995.