Alumna looks back on rewarding journey full of long hours, love of color

UMSL Daily

Ann Croghan juggled day jobs, part-time teaching and her own artwork for many years after graduating from UMSL. Her persistence on that path eventually led to her current setup at Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles, Missouri, where she teaches painting and drawing full time and also showcases her work. (Photos by Jillian Schoettle)
Two things stand out to Ann Croghan about her time as a student at the University of Missouri–St. Louis in the early 1980s: the Blue Metal Building and the professors.
“I had some fantastic teachers,” says the Missouri native.
While the space where those lessons took place no longer appears on campus maps, the excellent instruction has stayed with her. And over the course of the 35 years since she earned her bachelor’s degree from UMSL, Croghan has become a sought-after teacher in her own right.
Ann Croghan, BGS 1982, works with students at all sorts of levels. Her love of teaching is second only to her love of art itself.
She’s currently a studio artist at Foundry Art Centre, located just 15 minutes west of campus. Students of all ages and abilities benefit from her painting and drawing classes at FAC, and her work is on view at the facility six days a week.
“When this opened up it was such a gift,” Croghan says of her role. She’s been based there since 2011, and in many ways it’s been a welcome change of pace.
An art instructor in the St. Louis region for the past two and a half decades, Croghan juggled various day jobs with teaching and her own artistic pursuits early in her career. Eventually she plunged into teaching full time, but it was still a relentless schedule.
“For 15 years I was teaching at five different locations,” Croghan recalls with a chuckle. “I had my office in the back of my ...

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