Art students participate in renowned summer workshop experience

Two Northwest Missouri State University art students spent a part of their summer attending an immersive workshop and broadened their skills at an internationally recognized visual arts education center.  

Anonda Martinez, a senior art education major from Lisa, Missouri, and Sammy Ward, a senior art education major from Omaha, Nebraska, were selected to participate in the workshop at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where they studied natural dyes and earth pigments. 

Northwest art students Anonda Martinez and and Sammy Ward spent a part of their summer at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. (Submitted photo)

The annual workshops at Arrowmont provide students of all skill levels training in art media. Each year, Northwest art faculty members choose two talented art students to participate with all expenses covered. 

“The opportunity is immense,” Dr. Karen Britt, a Northwest associate professor of art, said. “I wish we could send all our students because it sends them into this really rich, vibrant environment where they’re in a group of artists from all over the country. It gives them an opportunity to engage with their work as well as with the artists as people.”

Veronica Watkins, an associate professor of art at Northwest and a faculty liaison with Arrowmont, added, “They get an opportunity to travel, and get some really great hands-on intensive workshops. Then, they’ve also seen a place that has artist residencies and they can go be a teaching assistant, so it opens up some networking opportunities for them.”

Martinez said the experience inspired her to seek more experiences to expand her skill set. After graduating from Northwest, she intends to stay active with art and envisions working at a community center or teaching museum courses.

“It got me to engage with a lot of people from different backgrounds, and it’s also enhanced the way that I now make my ceramic art,” Martinez said. “I think a lot more about my process and color and the application of all that. It’s made me a lot more open to new opportunities that I don’t think I would have gone for before.” 

Located just minutes from the Great Smoky Mountains, Arrowmont is known as a premier arts and crafts destination and offers more than 200 creative experiences each year. The art center works with instructors to create robust workshop offerings to meet the needs of their diverse student population, representing all ages and backgrounds. 

Martinez and Ward worked with a variety of materials and even went foraging for some of their own. 

“We made earth pigment pastels, watercolors, gouache and oil paint,” Martinez said. “We did soy painting on silk that we mordanted. We ground up eel to make inks and used indigo. It was a really extensive process for five days.” 

A view of a studio at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. (Submitted photo)

Arrowmont workshops are available to people of all ages, and Ward said she enjoyed getting to know her group of peers during their time together. 

“A highlight of my experience was getting to hang out with all the people in our workshop,” Ward said. “I think me and Anonda were the youngest, and the oldest was 80, and there was only 10 of us. It was really nice working in a space with all of them.” 

After graduating, Ward wants to obtain an internship at Arrowmont and become a high school or college teacher. She was inspired to become an educator by observing her mother, who is a fourth-grade teacher.

“I spent a lot of time hanging out at her classroom on the weekends,” Ward said. “She was able to capture the attention of all of her students, and she is just an amazing educator and person. She inspired me to want to work and create my own community through education.”

Ward says she appreciates how the art program at Northwest fosters collaboration and group work, which prepared her well for the workshop at Arrowmont.  

“I think they do a good job of making sure that we’re all working together,” Ward said. “It was kind of scary to get on a plane and go to Tennessee, but we’re just experienced with working with strangers, and we were able to trust them, and I think they set me up good for that.”