Every child is creative and can have moments of joy. That is what motivates Marlena Murtagh, an art teacher at Maryvale Preparatory school in Lutherville, every day.
“An art teacher has to be flexible. You get to learn so many things and kids are excited about it,” Murtagh said. “They give you so much grace. If you try something new and it doesn’t go so great, they laugh it off and are willing to try again.”
In April, Murtagh was named the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s independent high school teacher of the year. She earned both a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Masters of Art in Teaching from Maryland Institute College of Art.
“I really have a lot of fun at my job,” Murtagh said, who has been teaching at the all-girls school for 10 years. While her specialty is digital art and photography, she also teaches art 1 and interior design. Previously a teacher in Montgomery County, she appreciates the small class sizes at Maryvale.
“There is so much more one-on-one time. You get to know each student individually,” Murtagh said. Her department is also lucky to have “a robust budget for art supplies,” she said, though some classes require students to pay a small fee to cover extra expenses.
“I’m really grateful,” Murtagh said, who is not Catholic. “It is so joyful. So different than public schools.”
“Marlena Murtagh leads with compassion and empathy first and foremost, as a human and as a teacher. Follow that immediately with a sense of humor, brains, diligence, generosity, and, of course, creativity, and you can begin to understand what a wonderful human being she is,” Jennifer Nicholas, Maryvale’s Upper School Head, said in an email. “Her ability to be open and vulnerable with her students is one of the reasons her students rise to their very best and discover abilities and a voice that they didn’t know they had.”
She also enjoys developing new courses at Maryvale, like interior design. Students, however, are the reason she does her job.
“They allow me the opportunity to teach them,” Murtagh said. “It is an honor to work with them every day.”
Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org
