Salina Public Schools teacher, former students featured at university art exhibit

A long time Salina Public Schools teacher and Kansas Wesleyan University Alumna, Nancy Williams, created an art exhibit for the university gallery with two of her former students, which opened to the public Monday.

Williams has taught middle school art for 25 years at USD 305. The exhibit is a collaboration with her former students Noah Smucker and Noah Wellbrock-Talley who aim to show Williams' influence on young artists and the variety of art they can produce.

A love for teaching art

The show, titled "Full Circle: The Art of Teaching Art," running through Oct. 28, will feature various mediums, including pencil, graphite, oil, acrylic, watercolor, collage and mixed media.

Admission to the gallery is free and open to the public.

Williams said she was inspired to create an exhibit after realizing some of the art on the walls at the university were from more distant, less local artists.

"I thought, 'wait a minute, when am I going to do this for myself?'" she said.

It wasn't on purpose that two people named Noah, who both happened to attend her middle school class in 2009, were interested in participating. They were both available, which was a funny coincidence, Williams said.

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Williams has taught thousands of young students the appreciation of art, while maintaining her personal identity as an artist. But as for her former students Smucker and Wellbrock-Talley, teaching art also became their calling.

Smucker and Wellbrock-Talley now teach art at Lakewood Middle School and Meadowlark Elementary School, respectively.

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Having two former students to collaborate with was a perfect fit for the exhibit's theme, Williams said, because they are also influencing youths of Salina with their art and teaching as well.

"It added another layer to have them with me," she said. "It helped fill the gallery with variety, and their work is stellar."

Being inspired

Williams is a graduate of Salina Central High School and Kansas Wesleyan. She has worked for Salina Arts & Humanities, Salina Art Center, Smoky Hill Museum, CASTLE program for Sunrise Presbyterian Church and Salina Parks and Recreation.

She was an Artist-In-Action three times, creating original art installations for the Smoky Hill River Festival. Her work was shown at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Art Gallery, Salina Public Library, Salina Country Club, Lincoln Art Center and Brooklyn Art Library, to name a few locations.

As teaching art is the focus of the new exhibit at Kansas Wesleyan, Williams reflected on some people who had an influence on where she's at in her career.

Both Bill Hottman and Anne Mettleton were former teachers who helped her realize her potential, she said.

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"I'm a product of Salina's community; I was born and raised here," she said. "(Hottman and Mettleton) were super influential in where I am now, but I've had a lot of people along the way that went out of their way to help and encourage me."

The exhibit opens on homecoming weekend at Kansas Wesleyan, at the request of Williams. The exhibit serves is her own homecoming, of sorts, she said.

The exhibit, titled "Full Circle: The Art of Teaching Art" will hold a reception 6 p.m. Sept. 23 in The Gallery at Kansas Wesleyan University.

This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Salina teacher featured in kansas Wesleyan university art exhibit