Tejada, Irene

Art teacher at University School, the laboratory school operated by the University of Michigan, and professor in School of Education at the University of Michigan.

Irene Tejada was best known for her love of art and her friendly personality. In her many years of teaching, beginning in 1942, she shared her passion for art with hundreds of students in Michigan schools and abroad.

Her love of learning equaled her love for teaching as she not only earned a master's degree in design but also took numerous courses beyond her graduate work. Tejada became known as an expert on the use of indigenous materials for the production of arts and crafts, and had a particular interest in multicultural art. Her master's thesis was entitled "Persian Turquoise Glazes."

Tejada's early teaching career led her to schools in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Detroit, and she also taught at West Virginia State College before coming to the University of Michigan in 1950. During the years 1950 to 1955 she completed her master's degree and served as Staff Artist for the UM Audio-Visual Education Center, working as an illustrator of various materials and designer of educational exhibitions. In 1955 she joined the staff at the UM laboratory school, known as University School, as an art teacher where she taught K-12 students until 1970, when the school closed. In her later career she became an assistant professor in both the School of Education and the School of Art at the University of Michigan and was granted emeritus status in 1989.

Many students came back to visit Tejada over the years and acknowledged her teaching as the origin for their later involvement in the arts. She believed that children's art education should aim for the same quality as advanced art courses and enthusiastically exhibited student artwork in the schools and in the community. She was awarded Teacher of the Year at University School in 1968, and in 1991, received recognition for her lifelong dedication to art education from the Michigan Art Education Association.

Tejada's professional work included publication in the School Arts magazine and Brown Bag Ideas from Many Cultures, a resource she created for use in multicultural arts units. She was also a member of various organizations and committees including the National and Michigan Art Education Associations, the School Arts Coordinating Committee, Delta Kappa Gamma (a teachers' sorority supporting women in education), the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), and a committee, founded by Tejada in 1972, for incorporation of a multicultural curriculum in Ann Arbor Public Schools. The committee's multicultural courses were in place at the University of Michigan by 1973 and the inclusion of such programs was mandated in the State Legislature in 1974.

As an artist, teacher, friend, and innovator Irene Tejada was respected by her colleagues and students alike. She died on October 25, 1999, and her obituary can be found in the University of Michigan Publication The University Record from December 13, 1999.