Say hello to our art education team! These wonderful artists are passionate and experienced in their respective fields. Click on each headshot to learn more about each team member’s background and artistic expertise!
Meet Our Instructors
Image: CAVERN by Christine Cabral
Author of several books, including a researched book of ghosts and the first book in a young adult fantasy novel series, she also writes short stories, plays, screenplays, and exceptionally bad poetry. Married with two kids, a dog, and a cat, she tries each day to balance family, teaching, and creating.
Art Instructional Experience:
Art instructor - Osceola Center for the Arts
Art Instructor - Orlando Museum of Art
School District Osceola County, Florida
Santa Fe Community College Outreach Adult Programs
Local and statewide workshops
Affiliations:
Florida Art Group (FLAG)
Live Oak Artists Guild, Inc.
Colored Pencil Society of America
Gainesville Fine Art Association
Ann Kullberg Colored Pencil Magazine & online instruction
Image: All That Remains by Anda Chance
She earned two degrees, a BFA in art education and a MEd in Elementary Education. She has garnered awards in regional and national juried competitions, exhibits in invitational solo and group shows, and her work is held in numerous public and private collections. She has been published in The Palette and Southern Living magazines and other publications around the South Georgia area. See her work on her website (annettecrosbyart.com), Facebook, Instagram and her gallery Artists on Ashley in Valdosta. But she will also effusively add, “and you can come to my studio!” at the Turner Center for the Arts, where she is artist-in-residence and teaches classes.
Like her personality, her abstract work is vibrant and lively, full of energy and sensation.
After a career in social work (adoption and foster care), I retired in 2005. Wanting to learn something new, but having never held a brush, I decided to learn how to paint. I took numerous workshops with well-known artists. Although I was usually the “new kid on the block” in the classes with the most to learn, I never gave up. After miles and miles of painted canvases and tubes and tubes of paint, I am still learning. BUT, nothing gives me more pleasure than to share what I have learned through instruction and practice with anyone who, like me, has the desire. Thus, the Turner Center for the Arts has given me the opportunity to share my passion with others. I hope my enthusiasm for art and painting might give others the incentive to pursue their own creativity.
Most recently, I have enjoyed painting notecards using gouache (opaque watercolor) and gift bags and tags with acrylic.
Valencia has a passion for teaching and prays that she can inspire creativity in young artists. Valencia is a firm believer that every child can create great art. She hopes to encourage students' artistic abilities inside and outside the classroom. With the help of the Lead Instructor, Valencia’s main goal is to create a loving, positive, and welcoming environment.
"I’m a mom and rug hooking artist. I have a background in retail and graphic art, and am both a certified McGown teacher and president of the Wiregrass Rug Hookers (meets in Thomasville, Ga.). I focus on learning everything I can about rug hooking so I can help you on your journey. I dye, color plan, customize patterns, and provide video tutorials and personal lessons in my home or through the web camera. I also sell kits, wool, and more."
In the summer of 2022, Steven was an instructor for The Philanthro Films film camp as part of South Georgia Film Studios. He has mentored multiple Mass Media interns from Lowndes High School, Valdosta State University, and Wiregrass Georgia Technical College. Many of his interns have gone on to have successful careers in the film industry. Steven is also screening films for the 2024 South Georgia Film Festival.
Debra re-entered the workforce as a Realtor when her children were grown; but returned to her artistic beginnings in actual retirement. When she’s not playing with paper, paint and pastels in her home studio, she enjoys sharing her love of art by teaching painting and crafts to local area adults and children.
Debra is the Turner Center's 2024 Art Educator of the Year (this is an annual award given to someone on the Turner Center's instructor team for exemplary work).
"I'm originally from the Kansas City area -- I moved to Valdosta in 2021. I started working with glass as a medium when the Richard Hill Glass Studio opened at the Turner Center in 2022. My specialty is fused or kilnformed glass vessels and sculpture. I consider myself a lifelong learner -- I'm currently seeking a BFA in Art and Design at Valdosta State University, where I also work as an Assistant Professor of English."
I was very fortunate to know what I wanted to do in life, but I just didn’t know how it was going to pay the rent. So, I sought out a formal education attending Middle Tennessee State University, a small commercial art school in Nashville and finally the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. The realization was I needed to pursue commercial art and advertising.
After school my wife and I found ourselves in South Florida where I landed my first real job with a printing company. This gave me the technical experience on what could and could not be produced commercially. Within a few years the natural progression was to start my own business in graphic art and design employing full time and contract personnel. For 37 years we worked with the top 300/500 corporations in the country. During that period, I also taught adult classes in technical and freeform drawing, watercolor and other media. It has been a great, fulfilling experience. If only I had known where a simple cartoon was going to take me.
Our retirement 15 years ago brought us to Thomasville, Georgia. It was the first time we had slowed down in all those years. Being here has allowed me to appreciate the time and space to once again dedicate myself to the fine arts both in personal pursuits and teaching. To that end, I was first a student with Fay Bridges Hyatt at the Annette Howell Turner Center of the Arts. Since then, I have taught drawing classes at the Center and for the last seven years it’s been my pleasure to be an instructor of an oil painting class surrounded by enthusiastic students who share the same love of learning, experimenting and creating. I truly love the art of teaching and the teaching of art."
Dean was the 2023 Turner Center Art Educator of the Year (this is an annual award given to someone on the Turner Center's instructor team for exemplary work).
Nalley has embraced and celebrated the raku philosophy of wabi-sabi with others through raku workshops, as embracing the chance of imperfection informs the transient moments of life. She resides in south Georgia where she maintains a studio practice at the Hudson Pottery Studio, teaching Kids and Adult Pottery Workshops, as well Raku Firing Workshops.
"What do I do? My two specialties are painting and ceramics, although ceramics is something I focus on the most. Everything I do usually has a feeling. I've been painting since I was little; it's always been something I've loved. Ceramics came into my life as a way to express myself 100%. Everything I try to do, I do with feeling and dedication because I consider that's what gives life to art. One goal I always have is for everyone to be able to understand the message and the feeling of a piece just by looking at it, demonstrating how valuable art is."
Melissa is an award-winning filmmaker, and her film work has screened in several film festivals across the country. Her choreography has been performed internationally. She has danced for Flatlands Dance Theatre, Larry Keigwin, Van Dyke Dance Group, John Gamble Dance Theatre and Sidelong Dance Company. She has also performed in works by Martha Graham and Twyla Tharp. Melissa recently worked with Texas Tech University professors, Dr. Ali Duffy and Dr. Peter Fischer, on a multidisciplinary performance titled "Evolution of Gaia."
She is currently touring her work, "PIHOS A Moving Biography," at Alzheimer’s disease awareness events. "PIHOS A Moving Biography" is a documentary dance/film performance that explores the life of her father, NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver Pete Pihos, and his battle with Alzheimer’s disease. The work has toured to Charlotte, NC., Winston-Salem, NC., Lubbock, TX., Philadelphia, PA., New York City, NY., Valdosta, GA., and Santa Fe, NM. In 2022, Melissa was featured in an NFL Films Presents feature titled "Remembering Forgotten Heroes.”
Melissa has written, directed, and choreographed two children’s performances for the VSU Theatre and Dance department's Theatre for Youth Audiences Tour, titled "Planets View from the Hubble Space Telescope" and "The Butterfly and the Bee". Both performances incorporated science education. She has recently co-written and published an interactive digital dance textbook, "Dance and Culture" with Associate Professor at Florida Southern College, Erin LaSala Phillips. She has also written an essay for a new book by Dr. Ali Duffy, Professor of Dance at Texas Tech University, titled "Dancing Motherhood."
Melissa holds an MFA in Choreography/Dance from UNC-Greensboro and a BA in Biology. Her previous dance faculty appointments include UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Charlotte, High Point University and Salem College. She has been a national dance judge for Dance Machine and Boogie Fever since 2015.
Santillan was awarded the Turner Center's seventh annual Art Educator of the Year award in June 2025.
"I am a native of Valdosta, but spend half my time in Florida - I travel around with many famous artists to learn new and unique techniques for my paintings. I love learning and creating! I have attended a painting class with Dean Little once a week for twelve years, and I learn something new every week. You are never too old to learn something new - anyone can be trained to paint, and you do not need to know how to draw!
Painting is one of the most rewarding things you can do. It's my happy place. I am an impressionist artist, and love big and bold strokes, bright colors, and happy paintings! My studio is my happy place where I never know what the end result will be - it's always a new and interesting result. I love teaching others to create. I wrote and painted the cover of a children's book, "Caroline finding Miss Lilly."
I spend lots of time in Sarasota Ringling School of the Arts."