Dana Caldera

Adjunct Instructor

Hi there! I’m Dana, a passionate and dedicated artist and educator. I bring over 10 years of varied and extended experience in art education, including high school, museum, and college levels, to my work with AOEU.

I believe that art has an important role in the future of education, teaching important project skills such as problem-solving, communication, time management, pattern recognition, and critical observation, to name a few. I came into teaching from a corporate career as an engineer. People always seem to question how engineering and art go together, but I feel they are very closely related. Lots of the same skills that go into artmaking are used in engineering, as well as many other contexts.

You may be asking how I went from engineering to teaching. Well, that’s a long story that I won’t fully get into, except to share that it was because of a close relationship with my high school art teacher that I found my way to a career in art and education. I have a deep love of learning and creating, and I have never looked back.

Adjacent to my role at AOEU, I work as an adjunct professor and maintain an active art practice. I teach art appreciation and foundation-level studio classes in drawing, printmaking, and design. My personal artwork is collage-based and incorporates a variety of media, including hand paper-making and found objects/materials.