A.A., San Bernadino Valley College
B.A., San Diego State College
M.A., Claremont Graduate School
| Started | 1969 |
| Classes Taught | Art Appreciation, Ceramics, Design, Drawing, Painting, and Humanities |
| Department | Art |
| Retired | 2000 |
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Ed Branson started in 1969 as the Founding Art Faculty. His prior experience building a successful art program at a California high school was invaluable for getting YC's fledgling art program off the ground. Because buildings on the Prescott Campus were not completed when school started, classes were held all around Prescott including the High School, the Veteran's Administration (VA), and the Boys Club which was an abandoned Jr. High/High School located downtown. Ed began his YC career teaching in the Boys Club building, then moved out to the VA. He taught ceramics, painting, drawing, design, art appreciation, and occasionally humanities when the art history classes wouldn't make. He periodically taught College classes at Mayer High School.
In the beginning, he didn't have much to teach with other than paper and pencils. Lacking a defined budget, he used his negotiating skills to attain equipment. Thankfully, he had a lot of freedom to develop the program and every art class that was offered quickly filled. He credits the success of the art program and the development of the Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden to the full-time faculty he hired, specifically Elaine Farrar, Vince Kelly, Dick Marcusen, and Glen Peterson. The program continued to grow and at one point there were 25 part-time instructors.
Art shows were very important to him. He sponsored a student art show the very first semester and for many semesters thereafter. Shows were held all over town. He took many grade school and high school students to the YC Art Gallery exhibits. The Art Department sponsored several Art in Architecture workshops taught by Charles Clement, a Tucson artist. Student's artwork were displayed all over campus and some pieces remain to this day.
Ed had numerous artists come to the College; he recorded interviews and demonstrations of their work. He was also on the Speaker's Bureau and gave lectures to the Phoenix Art Museum Docents and local docents.
Ed embraced YC's distance delivery program and produced many videos on drawing and ceramics techniques to meet the demands of art instruction in far flung areas in Yavapai and Coconino Counties. He taught Art Appreciation classes through Interactive TV and taught one session tethered to a pay phone while sitting on his suitcase at LAX. He reached out to the local television audience by offering drawing classes through Channel 13.
Committee Work and Other Activities:
Mr. Branson retired in 2000 and was honored with Emeritus Faculty status.
