Joanna Draugsvold Art

Growing up a few miles outside of Manhattan, I felt privileged to travel into The Big Apple during my high school years on a weekly basis to view galleries, museums, and lofts in SoHo. The Met and the Guggenheim became my new homes, along with MOMA.  In college I continued formal classes in drawing, sculpture, and painting (that I had begun with local NYC artists while in secondary school). Several years later, I matriculated at Wesleyan University in CT to earn an M.A.L.S with a concentration in sculpture and journalism. 

Since then, I have been an educator of fine arts in secondary schools, along with teaching teens writing, literature, philosophy and history. Initially a sculptor, I helped to produce  the bronze School Girl sculpture which stands proudly opposite the School Boy sculpture at Cushing Academy, a private boarding school in Ashburnham, MA.  Several years later I opened The Studio in Winchendon, MA, adjacent to my home, to serve elementary and elderly aspiring artists, teaching in a number of media – from jewelry making, sculpture, drawing, and printmaking – to watercolor painting, acrylics and oils. 

A former member of The Copley Society of Boston, I am currently a member of GALA, GGAA (Gardner, MA) and The Jaffrey Civic Center of Jaffrey, NH. While showing and selling art through these venues, I also work on commission for portraits, animal paintings, landscapes, and travel art. Currently, I serve as artistic adviser to local painters preparing their work for art shows, along with teaching elderly the fundamentals of painting and drawing at Senior Centers in Gardner, Fitchburg, and Winchendon. along with supporting students as Art Portfolio Advisor and literature teacher at The Winchendon School in Winchedon, MA. I am also a volunteer member of The Winchendon Cultural Council which awards grants to local artists, musicians,  and theater productions.