James “Drew” Kirk: Boldly Going Where Few Art Teachers Have Gone Before

You can think of James “Drew” Kirk as the Lieutenant Dan of Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center. Like the fictional character from the movie Forrest Gump, Kirk boasts a distinguished military lineage. At least one member of his family fought in just about every American war.

“Well, I’m not exactly like Lieutenant Dan,” insists Kirk, the MACC’s newly hired education director. “People in my family didn’t actually die in every war.” Good thing, since, as Forrest Gump might say, that would be hard to live up to.

Kirk, a U.S Navy veteran who holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from Austin Peay State University, joined Monthaven’s staff in January 2024. In his new role as Director of Arts Education and Outreach, he will oversee the development and implementation of the MACC’s educational programs and its arts outreach initiatives. Without question, the MACC couldn’t have found a more natural artist and teacher.

A Tennessee native, Kirk grew up in Clarksville, and he apparently began sketching as soon as he could hold a pencil. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been attracted to art,” he says. “As a little kid, I’d spend my time doodling, drawing on walls, and getting myself into trouble. Later, I played trumpet and percussion in my school band. I just loved creativity of every kind.”

You might expect that someone with such a knack for creativity would want to get a collegiate art degree. But at the time, Kirk didn’t see college as a possibility. His family lacked the money to send him. Moreover, his father, a tough-minded former U.S. Army paratrooper who later worked as a truck driver, wasn’t encouraging.”

No matter, since Kirk was apparently destined to become an artist anyway. Following high school graduation, he enlisted in the Navy, serving from 2003 to 2008. Kirk initially intended to become a helicopter mechanic. He had just started boot camp when one of the petty officers asked if any of the recruits knew how to draw. Kirk raised his hand.

As a general rule, it’s never a good idea to volunteer for anything in the Navy. Indeed, sailors worthy of their sea salt will tell you the Navy is not just a branch of the armed forces. It’s an acronym – NAVY (Never Again Volunteer Yourself!)

But Kirk’s talent and esprit de corps quickly brought him to the attention of the Command Master Chief of the Helicopter Atlantic Fleet, one of the Navy’s highest ranking enlisted men. The chief needed someone to paint a mural of the MH-60 Seahawk helicopter, one of the legendary workhorses of the fleet. The job also included painting the emblems of all the fleet’s squadrons.

Kirk created his artwork, and for his efforts he was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal. “That’s the highest award I received during my service,” he says.

After boot camp, Kirk became an aviation machinist, working on the gear helicopters use to destroy mines. Luckily, he was never deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. His service, however, was not without trauma. In 2005, he was detailed to Panama aboard the USS Bataan, an amphibious assault ship. One day, the crew was called to battle stations, and in a moment of confusion a pair of sailors were operating a forklift recklessly. One of the sailors became pinned between the forklift and the bulkhead and was crushed. Kirk was assigned to the morgue watch.

Later, three Panamanian sailors drowned after their inflatable boat capsized. Kirk stood on deck and watched as their bodies, wrapped in sheets, slid off boards in a ceremonial burial at sea.

“These were all traumatic events, and I definitely left the Navy with some PTSD,” Kirk says.

The Navy didn’t promote therapy during Kirk’s time in service. But after a five-year enlistment, it did provide Kirk with a generous Post-9/11 GI Bill, which allowed him to pursue a bachelor’s degree in art at Austin Peay.

For Kirk, art became his therapy, his coping mechanism, and he pursued it with alacrity. While at Austin Peay, he made two trips to Italy, where he immersed himself in ceramics, pottery, photography and metal work. All of these disciplines have become integral to his current creative practice and teaching.

After graduation, Kirk landed a job as a behavioral assistant with Sumner County Schools. His job was to work with special needs students. Some of these students had been diagnosed with autism, others with schizophrenia, fetal alcohol syndrome and other disabilities.

It was demanding and often stressful work. Looking back on this job a decade later, Kirk expresses feelings that are unfailingly positive. “I loved every minute of it,” he says. “Some of these kids still reach out to me.”

After several years in the trenches, Kirk became a visual art teacher at Station Camp Middle School. For the next six years, he honed his teaching skills while instructing his students in the art of painting, sketching, designing and sculpting.

The bearded, tattooed and soft-spoken Navy veteran might still be teaching middle school were it not for the arrival at Monthaven of a legendary Vietnam War photographer. In August 2023, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Nick Ut was the featured artist at the MACC’s Fifth Annual Veterans Art Exhibition. Kirk, himself a skilled photographer, arrived at the MACC, eager to meet the journalism icon. As Kirk toured Monthaven’s galleries and classrooms, he began to see a role for himself at the organization.

“It wasn’t long before I was on the phone, bugging [MACC Executive Director] Cheryl Strichik for a job,” says Kirk with a hint of playful mischief.

Timing is everything, and as 2023 was drawing to a close, the MACC was searching for a new arts education director. Kirk, a military veteran with an expansive art background, proved to be the ideal candidate. The MACC needed an artist-teacher skilled at working with under-resourced youth and military veterans suffering from PTSD. Kirk fit the bill exactly.

“Drew brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his new post” says Tonya Mirtes, the MACC’s deputy director. “His background as an artist and military veteran provides our school with a strong foundation, one that will foster continuous learning and innovation.”

Kirk, for his part, believes he can make a real difference in the quality of art education in Middle Tennessee. The MACC is a relatively new organization, so the programming decisions Kirk makes today will likely guide the organization’s direction for many years to come. He’s especially glad to be back in the trenches, working with disadvantaged youth, military veterans and first responders suffering from trauma.

“The MACC’s arts outreach and healing arts programs are what get me up in the mornings,” says Kirk. “They feed my soul.”