Veteran art professor inspired by globetrotting

Associate Professor of Studio Art Erin Smith Glenn’s integral connection to Central State goes far deeper than her 12 years as a proud faculty member and dedicated instructor in the prestigious College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.  

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“This fall will mark 20 years since I first stepped on campus as a freshman,” Smith Glenn said.   

Starting in 2003, Smith Glenn began attending Central State as an undergraduate, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in fine and studio arts with a concentration in drawing and painting in 2007. “That was a really special time, especially in the art department,” she continued. “The professors that I came to meet were the cream of the crop, seasoned, and amazing. It was a wealth of knowledge.” 

As she sees it, what made for such excellence in her professors was the combination of their being both adept educators and proficient at their crafts. “These were nationally recognized artists who happened to be professors, as well,” she said.  

As a longtime educator at Central State who is also a prodigiously productive craftsman in her own right — particularly through her artistic and entrepreneurial endeavors via founding and running TheScarvinArtist LLC — Smith Glenn observed that such a combination makes perfect sense for the ideal instructor in practical artisanship. 

Rooted in HBCU pride

As someone who enjoys teaching and has a continued, evolving link to her own creative productions, Smith Glenn can stay rooted and invested in her role at Central State. “Meanwhile, I still have so much to do,” she said. “Each year keeps getting better.”  

Nevertheless, the Columbus, Ohio, native had to confess that Central State was not her first choice for her undergraduate work.   

“I was initially trying to get out of Ohio as soon as I could,” she laughed. “But now as someone who has lived in three different cities around the state, I really appreciate being able to be here, travel around as I so often do, and always coming back to this home which is so quaint and comfortable for me.” 

Dancing Belles troupe drives excitement for travel

The traveling bug bit Smith Glenn particularly hard while she participated in the school’s Dancing Belles troupe during her undergraduate years.  

“We were in front of the marching band, dancing in those fun uniforms and traveling all over, a lot,” she said.  

“That was an amazing experience: We were in New York, we were in Kansas, we were in Atlanta a couple of times. The group wasn’t as big or populated as it is now, but that created once more a very familial sense for me that kept me continually grounded in what I was doing at the school whenever we’d come back from our many trips.” 

After Central State, Smith Glenn did indeed stick to the more urban home region in which she had grown up, opting to attend the University of Cincinnati College of Arts and Science for her graduate work. 

Shortly after earning her Master of Fine Arts once again in fine/studio arts, in 2009, Smith Glenn was invited back to Central State — this time as a trusted replacement for a former mentor of hers in the art department, Professor Abner Cope, who was retiring.  

The mentor-mentee relationship that Smith Glenn and Cope enjoyed during her time at Central State was exactly the kind she wishes everyone at any school could have, referring to her instructor as a “second father.” They remained in touch even after she left for graduate school; all the while he kept her in the loop on developments back at Central State, which led to his suggestion that she apply for his position.  

“I did still have to apply and go through the full hiring process,” she said. “I think that sometimes when people see that alumni are hired, they believe that we’re hired only because of our being former students. And, no! That’s not what happened. I embodied everything that they were looking for in a professor — someone who would uphold the integrity of the department, and someone who would not just give out assignments but who would demonstrate in front of them, which of course I do. Extensively.” 

This mentality echoes Smith Glenn’s earlier summation of an aspirational faculty member in the arts being one who both teaches and generates work, concurrently.  

Studying abroad with Central State

More recently, Smith Glenn was inspired enough by her globetrotting — including graduate schoolwork in Italy — to add a component to her offerings at Central State.  

Just before the pandemic of 2020, she put together a new study abroad program in which she took a small group of students to Florence and Rome, this time as an expert guide for the next generation of young artistic minds. As it worked out, all four of the participants on this trip were women of color, one of whom was a nontraditional student – a mother of four, something Smith Glenn felt made for an incredibly unique experience. “Because she is Catholic, it also meant so much to her that she was able to meet the Pope while we were out there,” Smith Glenn said. 

Smith Glenn’s next study abroad opportunity will empower Marauders to join her on an illuminative trip to Paris. She will focus studies on the early 20th-century experience of expatriate Black artists who found a degree of reprieve from oppressive and discriminatory treatment in the U.S. European enclaves where they were more welcome and, in some cases, revered.  

“I learned when I was younger that basically the Harlem Renaissance pretty much moved to Paris, and so we’re going to survey that history there next year,” Smith Glenn said. “I’m really excited about Paris because we will be able to survey something that ties in so heavily to an HBCU: Black history in a different country. Exposing students to that is so important so that they can better understand the resources they have and how much more they can do in their own education and, eventually, artistic careers. 

“It means so much to me that I can take what I learned from my own professors in the past and my own study abroad experiences and can now model my work around that, bringing it back to the students here at Central State,” she added. 

Students who are interested in Smith Glenn’s study abroad program in Paris, which will take place during spring break 2024, may register through the Global Perspectives class here. The class is open to all students, and scholarships are available.