Fusing love of art with grá for teaching

No matter what career you pursue, whether it’s engineering, science, technology or arts, it’s crucial to be able to think creatively, says Dee Deegan who is a woman who practises what she preaches.

Dee runs Galway Art Academy in the city, having trained as a fine artist at GMIT, and following that degree with a range of other qualifications, mostly around education which is a passion.

When she says she was “born to be an artist”, Dee means it, because it took special dedication on her behalf to sit art for her Leaving Cert– the subject wasn’t offered at the secondary school she attended in Tipperary.

“So, I studied it on my own and a retired nun helped me with the history,” she says.

Dee’s teenage work ethic continued into adulthood, even as she studied subjects she didn’t necessarily like.

“I’m logical enough, but I didn’t always have a business brain,” she says. “I’ve done jobs I’ve hated, like retailing and book-keeping, with the intention of being self-employed and I did a FÁS course in accounts when I was unemployed.”

That training has stood to her.

After qualifying as a teacher, Dee taught part-time in Galway, hoping to get a fulltime Department of Education job, but when none was forthcoming, she set up the academy 10 years ago, because she wanted to stay living in “the place that feels most like home”.

Her family roots are in Offaly and she was born there.

“But it’s not straightforward and that has inspired my art,” she explains of her background.

Dee’s family moved to Tipperary when she was nine for her father’s work, and it’s where she formed lifelong friendships. After leaving school, she spent ten years in Dublin before eventually settling in Galway, after completing her Fine Arts degree.

Her parents moved back to Offaly and she loves visiting them in Banagher, but she questions where she belongs.

“I often wonder, ‘where is home?’ and Galway is the nearest thing I have found to it.”

The bridge over the Shannon at Banagher is a recurring motif in Dee’s work – with good reason.

“It’s a symbol for the in-between space I always feel I’m in. Am I an artist or a teacher? Am I from Offaly or Tipperary? I keep bringing those questions into my work.”

That sense of occupying an ‘in-between space’  is something she recognises in many of her students who have moved to Ireland from abroad.

Dee thrives in her role as an educator, bringing her art practice and other interests into her teaching. Science is a passion too.

“If I were allowed to have someone from the past back for dinner, it would be Leonardo da Vinci,” she says of the Italian artist, scientist and inventor. She loves how he embraced so many disciplines, and his designs inspired her to design a bridge-shaped bookcase which was bought by GMIT, now ATU.

With the Galway Art Academy, Dee runs afterschool classes in Knocknacarra’s Gaelscoil Mhic Amhlaigh and Scoil Éinde in Salthill, with plans for more classes in Scoil Iognáid in September. These span art, crafts and design – with pupils working in 3-D, and creating art from recycled materials, as well as doing close-up photography. Science, geography, technology and history feature regularly and she’s also involved with the Galway Science Festival and with one in Tipperary.  Essentially, Dee shares her creativity with the students.

“My own artwork comes first and that provides the inspiration for the educational work,” she says, adding this approach was nurtured in the Limerick Institute of Technology, where she did her HDip in education.

“I did that hesitantly,” she says of the Dip, as she hadn’t been sure teaching was the path she wanted to take. “But I did want to earn how people teach and how people learn.”

While doing a post-grad in GMIT, at the suggestion of a tutor, she volunteered to teach art in Limerick prison. Later, she was a sub in  the Mercy school in Galway City and she lectured at ATU as she did further studies there.

Pictured: Dee Deegan works as a teaching artist offering afterschool classes through Galway Art Academy. PHOTO: JOE O'SHAUGHNESSY.