This School of Art professor understands the power of helping students realize their artistic possibilities.

For Robly Glover, teaching is a hands-on endeavor. Throughout his career at Texas Tech University, he has guided students in the meticulous work of jewelry design and metalsmithing, plunging them into a demanding world that requires equal parts creativity and attention to detail.

His efforts to keep the student experience central to everything he does have been recognized often, with the most recent accolade coming earlier this summer when he was selected to be a recipient of the Minnie Stevens Piper Professor Award.

Glover is a professor in the School of Art within the J.T. & Margaret Talkington School of Visual & Performing Arts. He has been a Texas Tech faculty member since 1988, influencing and guiding hundreds of students along the way.

“This award underlines the importance of a liberal arts education,” he said. “A university is not a vocational institution. I hope I teach students how to solve problems, whether it is art problems or life problems. 

“We must never forget the importance of being able to think through a problem or issue. My students have been extraordinary problem solvers, and this stands as testimony to their success.”

Each year, the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation, through the Office of the Comptroller of the State of Texas, offers 10 awards to professors at four- and two-year institutions across the state for superior teaching.

“Professor Glover’s recognition of talent in young people and his dedication to them is certainly borne out in his receipt of this award,” said Provost & Senior Vice President Ron Hendrick. “Lucky for Texas Tech, and its students, Robly shows up every day prepared to bring out the best in his students.”

In a similar vein, Glover sees the award as affirmation of the work he and his colleagues do each day in the college.

“Professionally, this award gives me the opportunity to educate individuals on the importance of an art career and dispel the stereotype of the ‘poor, starving artist,’” he said. “Personally, it is a recognition that I’ve been on the right path throughout my career, trying to do the best I can with what I have to work with.

“Our alumni are teaching, researching and creating across many fields nationally and internationally. The vast majority of the alumni are successful, from the humble bench jewelers to the instructors redesigning bench curriculum at the Gemological Institute of America, and every professional and academic pursuit in between.”

Glover earned his bachelor’s degree in Jewelry Design and Art Metals from Indiana State University before adding his master’s in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design from Indiana University.

He came to Texas Tech as a visiting assistant professor in 1988 and gradually promoted up through academic ranks, culminating in being named professor in 2004. Included among numerous recognitions of his teaching prowess, he is a past recipient of the President’s Excellence in Teaching Award. He regularly teaches third- and fourth-year classes as well as graduate-level courses.

His work has appeared in major museums, including pieces at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Art and the St. Louis Museum of Art.

“The things students learn in their art classes are utilized in their real-life experiences and have great value in a practical, financial way,” he said. “Who solves all of life’s problems? The creative individual.”

Glover enjoys the give-and-take of the classroom, challenging students to stretch themselves creatively. He said great teaching boils down to building relationships with students and helping them realize their full potential as artists and citizens.

“You have to make learning fun and still be rigorous,” he said. “(Former broadcast journalist) Edward R. Murrow once said, ‘One must not merely teach, one must inspire,’ and that has always been a guiding principle in my teaching philosophy.”

Likewise, he said faculty members have to challenge themselves to change as students change, meeting academic needs in new and innovative ways while still delivering on the institution’s educational mission.

“A faculty member becomes successful when they realize that every three to five years, students generationally change in how they learn,” he said. “No institution prepared me for this realization. This understanding allows faculty to continuously connect with new students, even as the generational gap grows.”

Glover stays attuned to the teaching mission in other ways. For more than 20 years, he has managed the Saturday Morning Art Project, a program that brings together talented high school art students from Lubbock and nine surrounding school districts who meet for seven Saturday mornings at the School of Art. The group participates in workshops and other activities designed to showcase the full nature of visual art.

“As a professor, one must engage the students’ minds by allowing them to discover what is important to them and how to utilize the skills they learn in their classes,” he said. “As the technological advancements in our career happen, it seems traditional hands skills are getting left behind.

“It is my belief that as time moves forward, hand skills will have greater and greater value because all things must be put together. Students must be taught how to use the past to understand the future by engaging history in a meaningful way that reflects their time and place.”

With almost 40 years on campus, Glover says he will continue sharing his knowledge with students so they can depart from Texas Tech ready to make a meaningful contribution to the world – whether that be in art or some other area.

“Some of the best advice I can give students is this,” he said. “Be curious to a fault and engage life with a curious mind. Find the thing that makes you happy and makes you want to get out of bed in the morning.”