Blending art and industrial art skills

New Teacher Feature

SEELEY LAKE - Thomas Boelman will bring his years of carpentry experience to Seeley-Swan High School's art and industrial arts classes this year.

Boelman graduated from ITT Technical Institute in Indiana with an architectural engineering degree in 1979. He then graduated in 1984 with a B.A. in liberal arts with an emphasis on theater from Hope College in Michigan. He got his master's degree in scenic and lighting design in 1997 from the University of Montana.

He taught scenic and lighting design at St. Mary's College in Indiana from 1997 to 2002. He moved back to Missoula in 2003 where he began working as a contracted carpenter until 2018. According to him, when carpenters reach 10,000 hours of experience they qualify to become teachers.

This is how he was able to begin teaching industrial arts at Sentinel High School for three years. He also taught at Stevensville High School for a year before transferring to SSHS.

He learned about the position through the Missoula County Public School network. He will continue living in Missoula with his family.

Boelman defines industrial arts as building trades like carpentry, electrical work and plumbing. He said from a young age he has been interested in the constructive aspects of the arts.

"I've always grown up being pretty good with my hands and building," he said. "I've been doing artwork ... since I [can] remember. I think I started drawing in church when I was a little kid [and] I've painted for quite a while."

He said because his five kids range in age from 16 to 33, he is able to understand different age groups and what their general respective strengths are. He is also confident in his craftsmanship capabilities.

"I'm pretty well established as a carpenter," he said. "I know the skills that it takes to build."

While arts and industrial arts are considered two separate classes, Boelman said there will be crossover lessons where art students will learn sculpting while the industrial arts students will learn about scenic design. He said students have had previous experiences with woodshop and metal shop but he intends to implement broader building trade skills to the classroom.

"They've never done scenic design I don't think, and so I think I'd like the art class to get more into theater," he said.

Boelman hopes to bring his carpentry skills outside of the classroom by collaborating with the school's drama department. He also hopes to have his students build sheds as well as Homecoming floats.

"I'm not sure where it's going to go, I'm just gonna bring my skills," he said.

The biggest challenge he expects to face in the coming year is having students adapt to new experiences.

"I think that sometimes [they're] just not used to something new," he said. "And so [I'm] kind of showing them how new can be fun. I can see that there's a lot of desire to do something. And what we're going to do is going to be a good challenge."

He mostly looks forward to seeing how the various talents of his students will develop over the school year.

"I've watched some young people that are artists [who have] had some really nice talents that they're starting to bring to the class," he said. "And I see some good carpenters. The building trades [are] really hungry for carpenters now. So if I can get them to be in a position where they can be hired at the end of the year, [it] feels pretty good."

In his free time Boelman enjoys fly fishing, camping and spending time with his family. He also likes to do a lot of watercolor painting. Currently he is about halfway to his goal of painting 100 watercolors this year.

 

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