by KARA SCHWEISS
Josh Anderson has a successful career in higher education as an associate professor of art at Mount Mary University, a private university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He’s also director of the honors program as well as the director of the institution’s Marian Gallery. When he started his college studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, however, Anderson certainly didn’t envision following in the footsteps of his father, Ken Anderson, a longtime art professor at Peru State College.
“Maybe it was always kind of there in the back of my mind, but I tried to avoid being an art major for a couple of years. And when I was in Lincoln, I kind of bounced around and eventually ended up with the studio classes,” he said. “At UNL, I was lost in the shuffle of things. It’s a huge campus, and the art departments were in different buildings. I had some great experiences there, but when I transferred to UNO, all of the faculty and classes were in two buildings… they were accessible.”
He decisively focused on art with a concentration in sculpture, studying under a distinguished group that included David Helm (who still teaches sculpture at UNO and has received several awards for excellence in teaching), and working as an assistant for local sculptor John Lajba. Anderson’s UNO professors encouraged him to pursue graduate school, he said.
“I was just trying to finish this degree, and they’re the ones who started encouraging us to think about grad school,” he said. “I started thinking, well, it kind of makes sense. I like this model of life, being able to make art, talk about art all day long… and kind of feel like you own your time in some regards. And you get to constantly be around creative people.”
One creative person that particularly inspired him was former middle-school classmate Jordan Acker, who had also transferred to UNO’s art department from another institution. The two graduated from UNO and went on to the master’s program at the University of Iowa, marrying in 2006. Anderson first taught at Iowa, then at a community college. The couple relocated to Wisconsin for a job offer for Acker Anderson at Mount Mary University, and Anderson soon began teaching there as well. So, Acker Anderson and Anderson are professional colleagues in addition to being a married couple raising three sons (now ages 4 to 12) together.
“I think about, ‘How do I own my own time?’ My goal is to continue a creative lifestyle,” he said. “So, when I meet with students as an advisor, especially in their early part of their undergrad career—you know, we’re so caught up with people asking us, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ or ‘What do you want to major in?’—I ask the students, ‘How do you want to be when you graduate?’ ‘In five years, how do you want to be?’ And I feel like that starts to open the path, a clear path.”
His own path includes continuing to actively create art (joshanderson.studio and @milwaukeetalky on Instagram) in several media. Anderson also enjoys seeing his sons develop their own talents as they are surrounded by working artists: their parents and both grandfathers.
“I want to continue to make work. I feel like the studio is the thing that’s always pulling me back towards something beyond my familial obligations and my academic job,” he said. “And so, I think maintaining the creative lifestyle and sharing that with my kids and also with students is something that keeps me going.”
