Artist’s love to create leads her to passion for education

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - A Tri-State artist’s love of art helped her discover another passion: education.

Pam Kravetz says since she was a little girl, she knew she wanted to be an artist.

During her journey, she also learned that she loves to teach others, which led her to become an art educator for the past 30 years.

With each piece of art she creates, Kravetz says she wants to create a feeling of love and celebration.

Since Kravetz’s first installation at the Contemporary Arts Center, she has continued to pour her heart and soul into several other art installations across the city.

One of which is the Pam Jammas Pinkalicious House of Wonder exhibit at the Contemporary Art Center.

“It’s right as you walk up the elevator,” says Kravetz. “It kind of hits you in the face as far as like vibrancy and excitement, and the thing about art that I want everyone to know and feel is they belong.”

Finding belonging and where she fit into the world came with a bit of a challenge for Kravetz.

”So many of my friends and so many artists I know, a lot of us have struggled with academics,” says Kravetz. “I was in kindergarten, and I was really struggling with my ABCs and 123s. My teacher was amazing, and she gave me the easel. She saw that I was totally gravitating toward the arts, and I know it’s kindergarten, but every day, she let me paint on the easel. Every day, I left school with this feeling that I can do things instead of feeling like I can’t.”

She says the teacher nurtured her love for art and led her to the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design Architecture, Art, and Planning, where she graduated with a Fine Arts degree in drawing and ceramics.

However, after graduating, she struggled to find work.

“I thought, how come no galleries are coming and knocking?” Kravets wondered. “I was living at my parents’ house at the time. Knocked on the door of my parents’ house in Kenwood and said, ‘Does Pam Kravetz live here? We want to show her art in New York. Nobody ever came.’”

So, she applied, got the job, and discovered a new love for teaching. That love led her to Harrison High School, where she taught art for 30 years.

She also returned to creating art of her own when she wasn’t in the classroom.

She expressed herself in all mediums, from painting to clay, even making puppets.

“I was project manager for ArtWorks over the summers and really embraced the idea of working with community and a larger group of people to create a vision and a piece of art, and that’s what led me into more community-based work,” Kravetz said.

Her work has been displayed in several museums across the city, including at BLINK.

Now that she’s found her voice through her work, she’s a full-time advocate working with nonprofits, helping other artists find their voice.

“I think that is the beauty of art,” says Kravetz. “Is that we do evoke emotion, as artists as creators, and I love bringing people into a space. It’s colorful. It’s wild. It’s whimsical, but then you get a deeper message the more you look at it.”

Kravetz says she is also inspired by children and loves collaborating with them.

She says she would love to partner with a local children’s theater and maybe take on an acting role.

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