Popular Buffalo Grove, Wheeling park district art teacher going strong at 88
Students who want to take an art class with Enid Silverman know they need to arrive early to sign up as every class fills up quickly. Every class she offers has a waiting list.
What students love about Silverman, 88, is her patience, her kind critiques and her ability to simply make their work better.
“She is the most inspirational person,” said Ronni Rosenblum of Buffalo Grove, who retired as a children's art teacher. “I look up to her, hearing her history and seeing her work. Whenever she lectures, I'm there. Whenever there's a field trip, I want to be there. I want to hear every single thing she says.”
Silverman began to study painting as a hobby, while planning to pursue a career as a high school English teacher. But as individuals asked to buy her work, she was encouraged and began appearing at prestigious art shows in the Chicago area in 1968. Her Northbrook house is also filled with her paintings, many inspired by her late husband Irving and her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Her work is not limited to painting on canvas. She has been commissioned to create stained glass windows, which are in many synagogues across the Chicago area.
Silverman also designed murals for homes, businesses and as backdrops for park districts and high schools. The setting she is most proud of is working with her students to create murals along the hallways that greet the young patients at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.
“Doctors would tell me they used to walk down this hallway taking a child for a tonsillectomy and wouldn't know what to say to the child and now they could point out there's a bunny,” Silverman said.
She added said murals aren't easy. “It's always stressful and it's always a deadline. I don't laugh it off. I know I'll get it done and get it done right and complain the whole time that I'm too busy.”
But her true love is teaching, leading adult art classes for four decades. She teaches seven classes for the Buffalo Grove and Wheeling park districts.
“My students have become almost like my family, even though I have almost 100 students,” she said. “I love what I do and sharing my love of the art.”
Her students range from beginners to experienced. Silverman lets them decide the subject matter and she provides guidance so they can create the work they envision.
“She's very patient, kind and she always finds something good about what you're doing,” said Paulette Colo, a Buffalo Grove resident and student for 15 years. “She always says let the painting speak to you. If you don't know what to do, how to go further, stop and listen to it and let it speak to you.”
Rosenblum was encouraged by her friend and fellow student, Carol Malec, to explore oil painting in Silverman's class. She's taken her class for five years.
Malec, also of Buffalo Grove, said you notice Silverman is thinking about students outside the classroom too. Silverman will come to class with pictures and use those to offer suggestions to improve one's work.
“She is always thinking about her students and their paintings and taking them home with her,” Malec said. “She is always thinking what she can provide to make it better and easier for them.”
While students who've studied with her for years say she never changes, Silverman says she has noticed one change in how they treat her.
“If something drops on the floor, someone goes to help me. When I was 50, nobody helped me to pick it up,” she said. “I think when they hear how old I am, they are impressed and are surprised I can even walk.”
Silverman is quick to point out she is not the oldest in her classrooms - one student is 92; another who is 101 years old still drives to every class.
Silverman has no plans to retire.
“I love what I do and I am blessed that I can keep doing it. And mostly, it's just a joy,” she said.
So what is her secret to longevity? She shares the same simple answer that the daughter of her 101-year-old student once shared.
“Kindness.”