My Story

A portrait photograph of the artist, a pale, round woman with brown and teal glasses, her dark brown hair half-up, and a smile that goes to her eyes

Ink and watercolor sketch of a brightly lit downtown street in Hamilton, Bermuda. Clouds drift past colonial buildings in bright colors with a bay seen past the buildings and a hill on the distance.

A photograph of pigments being ground into paint by a glass muller (a flat-bottomed pestle) on a glass plate. TO the left is a partially full palette of handmade paints in muted colors.

Two hand-bound books on a green shelf. The book on the left is square with multi-color flower patterns tied with a ribbon, and the one on the right is a circular book with blue and red flower patterns.

Hello! My name is Elizabeth Buck. Making and creating has always been a passion of mine, and as I grew older, education joined those passions. An artist from a very young age, I had the privilege of having a great art program in high school and being chosen to participate in Art All State 2000 at the Worcester Art Museum - an experience that broadened my horizons and cemented my love of museums, art, and education. In college I continued drawing, painting, and sewing and expanded my work into papercraft, fiber art and bookbinding--my work was heavily balanced between design and illustration. During these years I worked with Mass MoCA to help fabricate art installation pieces alongside artists like the Yes Men and William Pope.L, and supported nationally acclaimed dance troupes like the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane dance company as the on-site Wardrobe Mistress for performances.

After graduation, I went into museum education, working as program assistant in the education department of the Worcester Art Museum and teaching at the Fitchburg Art Museum. Over the next decade and more I continued to work and teach for museums and non-profits, focusing on ensuring that my students and individuals in our programs felt seen, welcomed, encouraged, and inspired to try new things and explore. I was teaching painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, mixed media, and fabric arts to students 3 years to adult. From 2018 to 2025, I ran the school of the Worcester Art Museum as the Manager of Studio Programs. Reestablishing this program successfully, advocating for my staff and faculty, and introducing access programming and classes for individuals with disabilities are some of the work accomplishments I am most proud of. My own art practice at this time focused on practical fashion, fiber arts, bookbinding, and painting in acrylic and watercolors, and began including more abstraction along with illustration and design.

Stepping away from administration and back into teaching and making art has been a breath of fresh air. As an individual who is a life-long learner who has always sought something new and been fascinated by the how and why, in the last couple years I have decided to learn to source my own pigments from the world around me. I pull colors from both botanical and mineral sources through a variety of physical and chemistry based methods to make my own watercolor paints. This has brought my concept of creation to a whole new level and I am excited to share everything I learn with my students.

Outside of my art and teaching I am a wife, mother to two teenagers, and breast cancer survivor who lives with MDD. I am an avid reader and gardener who loves travel, delicious food, chocolate, good friends, and a dose of sarcasm with a good cup of coffee.

Highlights and Accomplishments

Download my current resume here

May 2025

November 2023

April 2020

Spring 2019

Received Doctorate of Education from the University of New England.
Dissertation: Ableism and museum art education: A qualitative phenomenological study of museum-based visual studio art teachers.

Received the Lynn S. Feldman Distinguished Arts Educator Advocate Visual Art Award from Arts|Learning.

Arts|Learning is a thought leader and change agent promoting arts education policies, practices and partnerships in MA public education, pre-K—college. A|L is a non-profit catalyst that accomplishes this mission through strategic objectives.
Learn more about Arts|Learning

Successfully piloted the first online, synchronous studio art classes and workshops by the Worcester Art Museum, programming that still has students nationwide five years later.

Integral in planning and facilitating studio art courses for individuals with disabilities at the Worcester Art Museum in collaboration with Open Door Arts, MA and the Seven Hills Foundation. Programming that is still successfully running five years later.