Bisa Butler, a 1991 graduate of Columbia High School, has returned to her alma mater to join its fine arts teaching staff.
MAPLEWOOD / SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Bisa Butler, the newest addition to Columbia High School’s fine arts teaching staff, is solid proof the student can become the teacher.
Butler, a 1991 graduate of Columbia High School, joins the staff of her alma mater with much excitement and a great deal of appreciation for the teachers who believed in her when she a student.
“I went to school with a really creative group of people,” Butler said in a recent interview with the News-Record. “There was, of course, Lauryn Hill, Zach Braff, A.J. Calloway and so many others.”
Butler also credits the dedicated teaching staff at Columbia High School with developing and nurturing her artistic talents, and that is exactly what she hopes to bring to her new students.
“I had some really great teachers at Columbia,” she said. “Larry McKim was amazing and always let us have a lot of freedom in our projects.”
Butler was also very close with former Columbia High School art teacher Onnie Strother, who served as an advisor for the Martin Luther King Association club, which still exists at Columbia High School.
“Mr. Struthers was always organizing events and easygoing, and he really gave kids the space to say who you are.”
Perhaps in a sign Butler was destined to return to her roots, one of the murals that she and her fellow classmates created one summer with the direction of Mr. Strothers is still prominently displayed in the high school.
The three-dimensional mural depicts African-American history, starting in the motherland of Africa, and progressing through history to modern-day scenes.
In a phone interview with the News-Record, Strothers spoke with great pride about his former student returning to Columbia High to teach.
“Bisa was always one of my best students, and very talented,” Strothers said. “I came to the school district in 1980 and served as advisor of the Martin Luther King Association for 15 years and Bisa was one of the early members of the organization.”
Although Butler knows she is walking in the footsteps of two beloved art teachers, she is excited about the new challenge that awaits her.
“I always wanted to come back and I interviewed 15 years ago, right out of college. I knew how good Columbia was,” Butler said. “I knew they had an actual art studio and supplies and the support of administration, and it’s every teacher’s dream to have students who are interested in the subject they teach and have students who are well-equipped to learn.”
It was just six months ago that Butler was giving a presentation of her quilts in the library of the high school, as part of an art series through the South Orange-Maplewood Adult School.
“This time, everything worked out. I was asked to come speak at the Adult School and came back as a visiting artist,” she said. “I was lucky that I got to speak to AP art as part of that visit and then, later on, they asked why don’t you work here already? My response was, I don’t know, but let’s make it happen.”
As a teacher walking the halls she once roamed as a student, Butler admits she still experiences moments of deja vu.
“It’s weird walking around between classes and realizing that I don’t need a hall pass,” she said with a laugh. “It’s interesting being on the other side, being the teacher instead of the student.”
And as the teacher, Butler hopes to bring that same spirit of encouragement and expression she had access to in the very same classrooms where she once sat.
“A lot of the traditions, they have held on. The average CHS teacher has been there for 15 years. The arts are really respected in the building; their plays are award-winning; they have an a cappella group,” she said. “It hasn’t really changed that much; they still support the arts. They have a lot of talent in the student body and I think that speaks to South Orange and Maplewood being very art-centered towns.”
A well-known fiber artist whose profile is rapidly rising, Butler can certainly attest to the fact that the local community strongly embraces the arts.
Recently, she has exhibited her quilts at the Newark Academy in Livingston and, in November, she is scheduled to exhibit at both the Firehouse Gallery in Orange and the Gallery Aferro in downtown Newark.
Butler’s work is also featured as part of the Bernard and Shirley Kinsey Collection, at the Smithsonian American History Museum in the African American gallery. Thirty of her pieces from the Kinsey collection are at the Epcot Center, where her artwork is hanging in the American House.
The Atrium Gallery in Morristown, as well as the Arkansas Museum and the Louis Armstrong House Museum, all have Butler’s work, and she has also exhibited at the Emperor’s Palace in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Perhaps the most important current exhibit of Butler’s is displayed right on her home turf at the Domareki Gallery in Columbia High School.
“Art is already a part of all of our lives and we have a choice in how we use it. We can surround ourselves with images that uplift or transform you or with images that limit you and hold you back,” she said. “Some of the students will go on to be artists or art collectors and being able to identify what the artist was trying to get across and decide if they want this in their space. I feel like art is a tool and has been with us since prehistoric times and will be with us until the end. It’s empowering to know how to use it.”
Butler will be teaching classes in design, drawing and art, and is excited to show her students the professional and personal opportunities that come with the arts.
“Art is something you can do right out of high school and you don’t need a degree to do it; your art teachers can get you connected with the right people,” she said. “But getting a degree can only help you because you meet more people in the industry and have the opportunity to develop connections with professors.”
As a teacher, Butler is hopeful she will inspire her students in the same way she was inspired by her own art teachers, with whom she is still in contact.
“It’s really cool that the murals that I made with Mr. Struthers are still up,” she said. “I feel like my imprint and our legacy are still there in the halls.”