New Face to High School Art: Introduction to Mr. Snook

As the start of a new school year has begun at ISB, high school students are excited to commence in their new art elective classes. Fortunately, moving up from middle school to high school this year is a creative art teacher, Mr. Snook. However, because he is new to high school, let’s introduce Mr. Snook, his career, and why he became interested in visual arts.

Before moving to ISB, Mr. Snook taught middle school art in the United States for 2 years and then moved to Thailand with his current wife and middle school art teacher, Mrs. Meisner. In Thailand, he taught at Ruamrudee International School for 15 years, and then transitioned to teaching here at ISB. After teaching middle school art in ISB for a year, Mr. Snook is glad to be back teaching high school art again. Although he enjoyed teaching middle school, as there was a lot of energy, he particularly likes teaching high school students as they are more independent and take more initiative in their visual arts.

Although Mr. Snook loves being an art teacher now, that wasn’t always his planned career growing up. His father was an art teacher for 32 years and taught Mr. Snook while he was in high school himself. Because his sister had also been an art teacher for a long time, when he arrived at university he had already decided that being an art teacher wasn’t a career path he wanted to pursue.

He started his major in biology, however, after a while decided he wanted to take a break and try taking some art classes. Through these classes, he discovered that art was his passion and thus decided to become an art teacher. Apart from being an art teacher, Mr. Snook mentioned that he has a passion for experimenting with different media and trying to make interesting visual art pieces. His hobbies also include fishing, spending time with his family, and traveling around Thailand. 

Finally, Mr. Snook encourages high school students not to be afraid to sign up/enroll in high school art classes. Even if art isn’t a strong skill someone has, he encourages students to take art classes to be creative and have fun. He mentions that he looks for engagement and improvement over someone’s talent at making art. Art should be something to enjoy and have fun with, not a class that has a lot of pressure.

“…now I’m an art teacher. And I love it. It’s where I should be.” – Andrew Snook