September Krueger brings lifelong learning to Cameron Art Museum

September Krueger is passionate about lifelong learning. She herself has transitioned careers, from working with wearable textiles in a studio setting to nine years in education with North Carolina’s community college system. Today, she serves as the curator of education and public programs at Cameron Art Museum (CAM), where she inspires a love of art, learning, and education in all ages. 

Key takeaways

• The bigger picture: Cameron Art Museum is using art as a gateway to lifelong learning, offering adults opportunities to develop creative skills, explore new disciplines, and connect with the museum's exhibitions.
• The details: September Krueger oversees CAM’s museum school and public programming. Fall offerings include drawing, creative writing, portrait painting, ceramics and other arts-focused classes.
• Why it matters: CAM's classes give adults a chance to develop new skills or return to creative interests. Classes are capped at ten students, allowing for individual attention from instructors.
• The more you know: The exhibit Echoes of Us: North Carolina Storykeepers, debuts on Oct. 24. That is also CAM’s next community day with free admission alongside museum programming and artists in attendance.

Krueger oversees the class offerings through CAM’s museum school and plans events and public programming, including concerts, lectures, and community days. Her work is interwoven with the museum’s current exhibitions, using the art on view to shape workshops and seasonal classes in painting, drawing, ceramics, creative writing, music appreciation, and more. 

Adult studio classes beginning in mid-October include Drawing Inspired by Nature: Fall Blooms and Branches, Pencil Magic (Drawing for Beginners), and Echoes of Us and the Writing of Witness. Weekend intensive workshops, like Portrait Painting from Life, are designed for individuals with a limited schedule wanting to explore the arts or learn specific disciplines (like landscape photography) in a medium.

“People love to learn; that idea of lifelong learning as my role and my work here, that hunger never stops​, it frames the way I think about the programs as well,” Krueger said. “Anytime we’re working on a series of public programs, it has to do with thinking about the exhibition and how we can bring to life the stories that are there in the works of art. How can we help them connect with who the artists are and tie a thread with what's going on with the exhibition?” 

Krueger notes the average age of class attendees is early retirement, around 50 to 60 years old, with some in their 70s. Class capacity is capped at ten students to lend one-on-one time and thoughtful guidance with instructors. Some participants even build out their class schedule like they would a college semester, she said, developing their techniques and working with specific instructors to expand their artistic repertoire — like animal portraiture or botanical relief ceramics, two courses currently offered in CAM’s fall programming. 

“I will say it is really just finding that balance of the staples so people can build their skills,” she said, “but infusing it with the artists we know in our community who can add in something that is unique, or introduce something that is culturally relevant in our region.” 

As an artist, Krueger specializes in printmaking with intricate quilts as her choice of expression, utilizing silk and other fibers to relay stories of nature and mythology. In 2011, she became an A+ Fellow through the North Carolina Arts Council. The fellowship training involved arts integration through education, which she said has shaped her role today at the museum.  

Krueger’s work as both an artist and instructor informs her day-to-day. She said that knowing both sides helps communicate technique and material. This supports her development of the museum’s offerings while introducing new ones, like Music at CAM, which she said came from a desire to expand the genres of music that deepen the community's engagement with exhibitions.

There’s a place at the table for both beginners wanting to learn a new skill and those returning to their craft after a career, Krueger said. “Even the most experienced painter who is in our exhibition at this time would sit down across from you and say, ‘I still have to pick up a brush and learn every day,’” she said. "The learning never ends.”

The museum’s newest exhibition, With a Southern Accent: Sporting Art and Fine Art of Eastern North Carolina, showcases southern artists’ depictions of the relationship between people and wildlife. Echoes of Us: North Carolina Storykeepers, debuts on Oct. 24, which Krueger emphasized is also CAM’s next community day, with free admission alongside museum programming and artists in attendance.