Casey Van Nortwick

The Turner Center for the Arts provides year-round growth opportunities for all levels of community artists, including Community Christian Academy art teacher Guthrie Groh and her student Israel Hopper. Groh and Hopper have both taken Weekday Pottery Classes at the Turner Center to further their skills under the expert guidance of Turner Center ceramics instructor Ramiro Santillan.

The Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts and its Young Writers League (YoWL) hosted the 4^th annual Art of Writing Contest, sponsored by the Georgia Council for the Arts, Greater Valdosta United Way, the Valdosta Daily Times, and Snake Nation Press. Middle and high school students in Valdosta, south Georgia, and the surrounding areas were invited to participate in the contest. 141 submissions were received based on this year’s theme, “Imagine.”

Emerson Rados, a fifth grade homeschool student, has won the 2024 Spring Into Art Invitation Design Contest sponsored by Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts.

Anda Chance, an accomplished artist, considers education to be her true career.

Chance instructs monthly colored pencil classes at the Turner Center for the Arts. Classes are beginner friendly, and students will learn color pencil skills and a deep appreciation for and understanding of pencils as a fine art medium. When asked about what a colored pencil class includes, Chance said “My classes focus on the basics of art, color theory, composition, and expression. I prefer students bring in their own ideas so that we can explore them together.”

Lucía Rodríguez Mota has joined the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts as the Richard Hill Glass Studio Manager and Instructor, effective January 11, 2024.

Youth ages 5-12 received a day experience in art education during the holidays through the Turner Center’s 2023/2024 Youth Winter Art Camps, held on the Turner Center campus.

Moody Air Force Base veterans, Valdosta State University Art & Design students, and Valdosta High School seniors are invited to participate in Glass Art 101 Academy, a multi-generational glass outreach program sponsored in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Carolyn Griner, a 9th grade student at Valwood School, has a demonstrated history of involvement with the arts and related successes.

As a kindergarten student at Valwood, Griner’s artwork was included in the Turner Center’s Annual Spring into Art Invitation Design Contest, a special extension of the Annual Youth Art Month Exhibition. More than 50 pieces a year are entered into the contest by teachers of grades K-5. The winner receives a free class at the Turner Center and allows for the publication of their artwork on tickets and invitations for the annual Spring into Art Opening Gala. Their work is then professionally framed, formally presented to them, and displayed during the annual Spring into Art Exhibit.  Griner won this contest in 2015, preceding the 28^th Annual Spring into Art Exhibit.