Karen McSorley Profile
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Editor's Note: Karen McSorley is a frequent Instructor for our program. She teaches a variety of subjects in the disciplines of art and history. Her courses for us in 2020 included: Passports to the Art of Africa, 19th Century Art and Literature, and Wild Women in Art. In early 2021, she covered History of Western Sculpture.
Here is a profile on Karen based upon a discussion with her by OLLI Member Dina Martin. |
Interviewing art historian Karen McSorley is like having a cup of tea and sympathy with a friend—even when it’s over Zoom. It’s a tonic for the Pandemic soul. By the end of the hour, she’s your new best friend.
That’s pretty much how it is with the students in her OLLI classes as well. Although McSorley has advanced degrees in Art History and Economics from both Northwestern and Yale universities, her approach to art history classes is accessible to all her students who share their “Ah-ha” moments with one another.
McSorley’s enthusiasm, animation, expertise and curiosity is contagious as she draws in students for such far-flung courses as Wild Women in Art, Passport to the Entire History of Art, Art as a Social and Economic Phenomenon, and The History of Photography. She manages to take broad topics and break them down with nary a date or art period to memorize.
“This particular OLLI program allows me the breadth to explore art with an audience who’s lived life. They understand the ‘big ideas’, versus 18-21year-olds,” she says. “That’s my favorite part of standing up in front of OLLI students. I get to watch all the lightbulbs go off in their heads. In my mind, I imagine there are a lot of backstories these people could tell. It’s not only invigorating, it furthers my curiosity. And that’s the wonderful kinetic energy that we are able to have in the classroom.”
Although she spent years as a volunteer docent at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, McSorley seems to have found a home at OLLI.
“I love museums,” McSorley says. But what I don’t love are museum guards who don’t let people talk—because if you treat it as a hallowed hall of white walls, it feels like church. There’s no questioning, no interaction. So I love when people talk.”
OLLI has also informed McSorley’s research for her upcoming book.
“Teaching at OLLI, I get to bring a different perspective on art, an art that impacts us economically, politically, emotionally in real terms. That’s what I want to research,” she says.
That’s pretty much how it is with the students in her OLLI classes as well. Although McSorley has advanced degrees in Art History and Economics from both Northwestern and Yale universities, her approach to art history classes is accessible to all her students who share their “Ah-ha” moments with one another.
McSorley’s enthusiasm, animation, expertise and curiosity is contagious as she draws in students for such far-flung courses as Wild Women in Art, Passport to the Entire History of Art, Art as a Social and Economic Phenomenon, and The History of Photography. She manages to take broad topics and break them down with nary a date or art period to memorize.
“This particular OLLI program allows me the breadth to explore art with an audience who’s lived life. They understand the ‘big ideas’, versus 18-21year-olds,” she says. “That’s my favorite part of standing up in front of OLLI students. I get to watch all the lightbulbs go off in their heads. In my mind, I imagine there are a lot of backstories these people could tell. It’s not only invigorating, it furthers my curiosity. And that’s the wonderful kinetic energy that we are able to have in the classroom.”
Although she spent years as a volunteer docent at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, McSorley seems to have found a home at OLLI.
“I love museums,” McSorley says. But what I don’t love are museum guards who don’t let people talk—because if you treat it as a hallowed hall of white walls, it feels like church. There’s no questioning, no interaction. So I love when people talk.”
OLLI has also informed McSorley’s research for her upcoming book.
“Teaching at OLLI, I get to bring a different perspective on art, an art that impacts us economically, politically, emotionally in real terms. That’s what I want to research,” she says.
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OLLI classes allow McSorley to try new approaches. For example, she taught her History of Architecture Class based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, rather than the traditional method of moving through world architecture, from the Greeks to modern times.
“It was fabulous! It started with the need for homes, for individual dwellings, and from there going to religion, then self-actualization, and ended with Green Architecture,” she says.
“It was fabulous! It started with the need for homes, for individual dwellings, and from there going to religion, then self-actualization, and ended with Green Architecture,” she says.
Her Passport to the Art of Africa Class in early 2020 was infused with personal knowledge gleaned from her many visits to Ghana as a teacher with the Yale Alumni Service Corps and later as a volunteer with several Nongovernmental Organizations to Kenya and Ethiopia. She still makes regular visits to the village in Ghana.
“My heart was forever changed by those visits,” she says.
“My heart was forever changed by those visits,” she says.
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For her upcoming history of sculpture class, McSorley intends to start with the sculpture of today and go back in history to the Greeks.
“The reason is that the beauty of art, the power of art is its ability to transfer information across centuries, across cultures and geography. That’s what good art is,” she says. “Good art can no longer be measured by the dexterity of artists’ hands or the quality of paints. It’s that message that persists through time.”
McSorley’s in-person classes regularly included extracurricular field trips to museums that often ended with lunch in local restaurants. It was during these field trips that she got to know Stella Bates, a Brit and a longtime OLLI member who died unexpectedly last spring at age 70.
“I spent so much time with her,” McSorley reflects. “When we went out with her on one of my bonus excursions, she’d always ask ‘Would you like to share a cup of tea beforehand?’ and how could I refuse that? So when I heard the news about Stella, I was so jarred, jarred by her death, jarred by the personal connection I had with her.”
In thinking about Stella, McSorley set to work on an OLLI lecture on the ancient Greeks’ eight definitions of love that she delivered in mid-February.
“I took all their eight definitions and found art that reflects each one. There were eight ways, eight possibilities. I dedicated it in loving memory to her,” she says. In my mind, I kept thinking, ‘Stella should have known that she was loved.’”
Working virtually on Zoom has been a challenge for McSorley, as it has been for other instructors and students. She acknowledges that it’s hard to maintain the intimacy of the classroom, but 10 months into it, she has become more comfortable with the medium. And, she has maintained a connection with her students through other means as well.
At Christmas, McSorley sent a poem to her students.
“In normal times, I probably wouldn’t have done that, but I think we’re all looking inside. It’s not that I think I can save the world, I’m not superwoman, but I do think that those of us in OLLI classes have shared something,” she says.
“The reason is that the beauty of art, the power of art is its ability to transfer information across centuries, across cultures and geography. That’s what good art is,” she says. “Good art can no longer be measured by the dexterity of artists’ hands or the quality of paints. It’s that message that persists through time.”
McSorley’s in-person classes regularly included extracurricular field trips to museums that often ended with lunch in local restaurants. It was during these field trips that she got to know Stella Bates, a Brit and a longtime OLLI member who died unexpectedly last spring at age 70.
“I spent so much time with her,” McSorley reflects. “When we went out with her on one of my bonus excursions, she’d always ask ‘Would you like to share a cup of tea beforehand?’ and how could I refuse that? So when I heard the news about Stella, I was so jarred, jarred by her death, jarred by the personal connection I had with her.”
In thinking about Stella, McSorley set to work on an OLLI lecture on the ancient Greeks’ eight definitions of love that she delivered in mid-February.
“I took all their eight definitions and found art that reflects each one. There were eight ways, eight possibilities. I dedicated it in loving memory to her,” she says. In my mind, I kept thinking, ‘Stella should have known that she was loved.’”
Working virtually on Zoom has been a challenge for McSorley, as it has been for other instructors and students. She acknowledges that it’s hard to maintain the intimacy of the classroom, but 10 months into it, she has become more comfortable with the medium. And, she has maintained a connection with her students through other means as well.
At Christmas, McSorley sent a poem to her students.
“In normal times, I probably wouldn’t have done that, but I think we’re all looking inside. It’s not that I think I can save the world, I’m not superwoman, but I do think that those of us in OLLI classes have shared something,” she says.
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The Answer
by Karen McSorley For a modicum of calm, remember you and I both hail from the arts world. The arts boast the longest of human histories. Older and wiser than religion, politics, and science. The arts serve as guardian of both human tragedy and triumph. They bear witness to our entire history. And above all, the arts are the one thing upon which humans agree. The solution is already in our hearts. And we humans will find our best purpose once again. Love, Karen Lee McSorley |
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