Hailey Rathmann

The Turner Center for the Arts has announced five youth summer art camps available for ages 5-12, with one-day, two-day, and four-day options. All summer camps take place on the Turner Center Campus and are designed to interject imagination and creativity into the summer months. Spots in each camp are limited.

The Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts will launch a ceramics artist-in-residence program in the summer of 2025. The program is designed to benefit recent high school or college graduates, as well as other artists who are early in their artistic careers. The program will provide artists with affordable supplies and a studio space to use for the creation of their own artwork, and in exchange, the artists will provide services or products for the Center. These might include studio work, teaching, or other areas of expertise.

Turner Center for the Arts offers several programs and classes for youth and adults. Among these are Weekday Pottery Classes, with five weekly class times available for beginners to create using clay. Several of the Center’s repeat students shared their backgrounds and reasons for joining classes, and each expressed a common theme – that they wish they had joined the classes sooner.

The Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts and its Young Writers League (YoWL) presented the winners of the 5^th Annual “Art of Writing” Contest at a March 17 awards reception held in the art galleries.

Middle and high school students in south Georgia and the surrounding areas competed in the free contest that resulted in 156 written works focused on this year’s theme, “Courage,” and for $3,000 in cash prizes and publishing awards. Sponsors and partners for the contest include the Georgia Council for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Greater Valdosta United Way, Valdosta Daily Times, Snake Nation Press, and South Georgia Regional Library.

The Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts is seeking photography and guitar instructors to add to its creative team.

The Center is actively seeking a photography instructor to lead regular four-to-five-week courses. The Center is also seeking guitar instructors to expand current music programming through private lesson offerings.

Halee King, a 2^nd grade J. L. Lomax Elementary School student, has won the Turner Center for the Arts 2025 Spring into Art Invitation Design Contest. King’s work will be featured on the Center’s 38^th Annual Spring into Art Exhibition Opening Gala invitation and tickets. She will receive a free youth class, as well as free tickets to and special recognition at the Opening Gala on Monday, April 7, 6-9 p.m. The contest was open to all area students grades K-5. King’s work is on display through March 19 at the Turner Center galleries, 527 N. Patterson St., as a part of the Center’s Annual Youth Art Month Exhibition. For more information or to purchase tickets to Spring into Art, visit turnercenter.org or call 229.247.2787.

One of the Annette Howell Turner Center’s most popular programs is Ceramics. Instructor Taylor Nalley leads monthly workshops for youth and adults at the Center, and she describes how ceramics gives her community and the joy of inspiring others.