Interview with Lynn Smith President-elect of Arkansas Art Educators
Lynn Smith retired from teaching art after nearly 40 years of inspiring students to be better artists and, more importantly, better individuals and better citizens. He was one of the first two Arkansas high school art teachers to receive National Board Certification and recertification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, which he held from 2001-2021. His efforts and dedication to his students have been recognized by his peers many, many times including selection as a Teacher of the Year more than a dozen different times during his career. Lynn remains actively involved in the Arkansas Art Educators and the National Art Education Association and is currently serving as the Arkansas Art Educators President-elect. (Profile photo by Stacy Owens)
AAS: Lynn, were you born and raised in Arkansas?
LS: I was born in Riverdale, California, in the mid 1950's as the youngest of eight children. My dad was a pipeliner so we moved a lot with the ever expanding pipelines. During my early childhood, I experienced many different states across the country until my parents settled in Lake Village, Arkansas in the fall of 1965, which was my fifth-grade year. By this time, my three oldest siblings were married and out of the house, but it was still tight quarters with seven people living in a three-bedroom mobile home. I graduated with honors from Lakeside High School in Lake Village in 1973 and then attended the University of Arkansas at Monticello. There I earned a BA in Studio Art with minors in Music and Education in 1978. I continued to develop and hone my art skills by taking independent or graduate classes at Northeast Louisiana University (now University of Louisiana at Monroe), Delta State University in Cleveland, MS, Arkansas State University, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and West-Ark Community College (now University of Arkansas at Fort Smith).
AAS: Did you know as a kid that you wanted to be an artist and teacher?
LS: Yes and no. I came to art at a very young age. Even before starting public school as a five-year-old, I was drawing and coloring on any paper or white surface near me. Growing up poor meant that art supplies were not always a high priority. I looked forward to the start of the school year in elementary school, as well as Christmas, Easter, and birthdays because I knew I would get a new set of crayons. Oh, the joy! As I moved up in elementary school, I was shocked when one day in class my third-grade teacher told me I was an artist. She tried to make me understand that my drawings in my report on owls were not what an average third grader would normally produce. That day was the day I believed I was an artist, and I went home and told my family. They were neither surprised nor shocked because they had watched me develop as an artist over the previous 4-5 years.
My earliest role models were my elementary art teacher who was also my high school art teacher Mrs. Nancy Drew, my fifth-grade classroom/homeroom teacher, Mrs. Alice Miller, who loved arts/crafts, and my high school geometry/chemistry/physics teacher, Mrs. Edith Fish. I watched Mrs. Fish paint beautiful landscapes in oils while sitting on the front steps of Lake Village Baptist Church right across the banks from Lake Chicot. I loved watching others "make art" and learning from their experiences. When I was a junior in high school, I was encouraged to complete a vocational aptitude exam which indicated I was best suited for a career in architecture. So, in the fall of my senior year, I completed all of the applications to enroll in the U of A School of Architecture and was accepted. That same year my mother became ill with cancer, and she asked me to start my education at UAM and then transfer to U of A at the beginning of my junior year. After two years at the nearby college where I could be close to my mom should she need me, I didn't want to transfer to Fayetteville because I had declared a major in art with plans to become an art teacher. Also, I had developed so many friendships through the marching and concert bands, acapella concert choir and the yearbook staff where I was one of the co-editors. After my mom passed in the middle of my junior year, I had no desire to transfer so I stayed the course and never looked back. Teaching was not my original plan but looking back I'm neither sad nor disappointed with my career choice as an art educator. It was where I was meant to be all along.
“I learned that my students did not care how much I knew about art until they knew how much I cared about them. On my good days and my bad days, when I was exhausted and my nerves were frazzled, I made sure they knew that I cared.”
AAS: You recently retired after a 40-something year career as a high school art teacher. During that time, you earned so many awards and received so many accolades. What were some of the most meaningful to you?
LS: I am thrilled at the recognitions I have received from the Arkansas Art Educators organization because they are my peers, my colleagues and my cohorts. They recognized my love of teaching and my commitment to art education during my 39 years in the classroom. But my most meaningful awards would have to be the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award in 1992-1993, the Arkansas Department of Education's Western Region Teacher of the Year in 2000, and the Little Rock School District's High School Teacher of the Year during my last year of teaching in 2020. These awards were bestowed on the national, regional and district levels which made a huge impact on me as a teacher. While all three of those awards came with cash prizes, $25,000, $1000 and $500 respectively, they were more meaningful to me because teachers from every discipline and content area were being considered for those awards - not just art teachers. That validated to me that what I did in the classroom as an ART TEACHER is/was important. During my tenure in the Little Rock School District, I had the opportunity to organize, prepare for, present or select presenters to fulfill the professional development opportunities for every middle school and high school art teacher for nearly 15 years. It was a huge responsibility, but I accepted that role because I wanted to make sure that the LRSD secondary art educators were being provided quality professional development that was creative, useful and provided an emotional connection to what they do in their art rooms every day. My first year at Little Rock Central High, I was a floating teacher moving from first floor to third floor art rooms with "art a la cart" and the second year I was promoted to the Fine Arts Department Chair with eight art teachers and three music teachers. It was an honor and sometimes a challenge to serve alongside the other department chairs in Mrs. Nancy Rousseau's administration.
AAS: Even though you are retired you continue to be active in art education and you are the President-elect of Arkansas Art Educators. Tell me about the AAE?
Alica Aida Ayers working with AAE members in a hands-on session following her keynote address to the membership.
LS: The Arkansas Art Educators organization is an affiliate of the National Art Education Association. This group is comprised of visual arts teachers from around the state and a few from outside the state. The organization’s focus is to provide a networking platform for all Arkansas art educators, provide quality professional development twice a year, and provide leadership opportunities in the various regions of the state as well as at the state and national level. The organization boasts a current membership of 246. Many of the members have been active in the organization since the 1990's and some were born in the 2000's. We are as diverse in backgrounds as we are in ages, but we all work well together in this organization.
AAS: Why should an art teacher become a member of the AAE?
AAE Members enjoying hands-on workshop with Neal Harrington (right) and Tammy Harrington (middle) at a recent AAE Fall Conference.
Lynn speaking to AAE Members in the Kiln Room of the AMFA Museum School.
LS: For art teachers in Arkansas, membership in the National Art Education Association comes with a membership in the Arkansas Art Educators. Members of AAE/NAEA have many membership benefits at the state and national level. Active members are encouraged to participate in fall and summer conferences as attendees and as presenters. Members are offered opportunities to take leadership roles in all levels of the organizations. Through active memberships, art educators can network with other art educators in their region of the state, across the state and across the nation. They may participate in art contests for their students that are only available to active NAEA/AAE members. Opportunities for awards in the state and national organizations are only available to members, and one of the most important benefits is the access to NAEA resources, programs and professional development. By being a member of the AAE, art teachers build working relationships and friendships with members from across the state.
AAS: How did AAE come into being?
LS: AAE began as the art section of the Arkansas State Teachers Association (ASTA), which later became the Arkansas Education Association (AEA). The art group within AEA met as early as November 1922 for the ASTA fall conference. By the 1950s, the art group was now called the Arkansas Art Education Association (AAEA) and held conferences every fall focusing on trends in the field of art education including art creation, art history, and expanding the role of art education in the schools. AAEA instituted its first organizational constitution in 1955, outlining the duties of the executive board and council as well as membership responsibilities, in addition to establishing state delegates to attend the regional Western Arts Association meetings and the National Art Education Association’s annual conference. AAEA functioned as a self-governing organization while affiliating with the state regional and national associations.
AAS: When did Arkansas Art Education Association become Arkansas Art Educators and affiliate with the National Art Education Association?
LS: Former AAEA presidents Carolyn Hofmann and Joe Scott were instrumental in AAEA unifying with the National Art Education Association in 1977. In 1988, the group was awarded 501(c)3 nonprofit status. Sometime between 1977 and 1988, the organization’s name was changed to Arkansas Art Educators.
AAS: What are some of the initiatives AAE has been involved with over the years?
Brynn Ward was award the first AAE Future Art Educator Scholarship at the 2023 AAE Fall Conference - funded by sales of AAE's Coloring Book series.
LS: AAE members supported art education legislation for art in junior high schools across the state and were instrumental in passing Act 1506 of 2001, known as the Art in the Public Elementary Schools of Arkansas Act. Members helped write and revise the state art frameworks and support certified art teachers in the classroom. AAE annually produces a two-and-a-half-day conference to continue teacher dialogue on developing art skills in K-12 schools as well as share/discuss current trends in art education. AAE sponsors “Portfolio Day,” created by past president Cathy Porter in 1984, and the State Art Show, created in 1992. The AAE President’s Fund Foundation was formed to award scholarships to teachers wanting to continue their education. Additional information about the organization can be found at ararted.org.
AAS: So, aside from the AAE, how have you been enjoying your retirement?
Photo by Robert Clark
LS: Retirement now is GREAT! The first year was horrible because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the isolation I felt during that time. But I've slowly reached back out in the arts community where I've been a very active learner in the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Windgate Art School. In August of 2023 I took my first ceramics class there, and I've been going into the pottery studios almost every day the studios are open. So far, I've completed five pottery classes there with Dani James, Jenn Perren (one of my former art students from LR Central High), Jacqueline Currie, Kelly Edwards, and India Childress. Currently I'm enrolled in two intermediate wheel throwing classes with Kelly Edwards and Tony Bockhold. These individuals are all amazingly talented artists as well as wonderful teachers. When I'm in the AMFA ceramics studio and I have a chance to visit with the museum school's Ceramics Department Chair Zach Wollert I know I will always learn something new about ceramics. Most days my life revolves around the pottery studios, but now that Brian, my husband, is also semi-retired, we're traveling more and more. Right now, we're planning another trip to Amsterdam to celebrate Brian's birthday in September and a trip back to Italy next spring.
AAS: How has art education in high school changed over the years? What do you think it will be like in the next 5-10 years?
LS: When I started teaching in 1978, high school art teachers taught art projects they thought would interest the students, such as candle-making, sand painting in glass vessels, and colored pebble mosaics. Not that there wasn't a place in the art class for these, but they really didn't add much to the foundation that needs to be laid in a beginning level high school art class. Individual teachers created their own curriculum for Art I and Art II, which were the standard courses for most high schools in the state. Of course, larger high schools could offer a wider variety of courses, but they were still pretty much working from their own curriculum standards. Today, the Arkansas Department of Education provides every teacher with a set of curriculum standards based on the levels of the courses being offered. I was fortunate to serve on the first committee to write the first set of standards for visual arts courses back in the 1990s. Now high school art programs are becoming more and more diverse with a variety of levels of courses in drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, and sculpture. Today, many schools in the state are offering College Board approved Advanced Placement art courses where the students can earn three hours of college credit through portfolio development. I don't see a reduction in the number of schools offering art courses in the future, but some schools cannot afford to fund the art programs sufficiently because of the Learns Act and forced funding formula for teachers' salaries. There has always been a struggle to fund art programs in Arkansas. Some districts are aggressive in funding while others fall way behind. The arts are critical to problem solving skills necessary to succeed post high school, whether that is college, trade school or moving directly into the workforce. In the future, I believe that high school art classes will be filled with students seeking new ways to approach creating art with new technology. However, I do hope that art programs will keep life drawing studies in the foundational classes because those skills are critical for all approaches to making art.
AAS: Lynn, I asked you earlier about your awards and recognitions as an art teacher. But looking back, what did you learn from your students and what are you most proud of as a teacher?
LS: I had the opportunity to teach more than 25 different studio art and art history courses in high schools across Arkansas for nearly 40 years. During those years, my teaching experiences showed me that every student has a passion, and while it was not always visible on the surface, I knew those passions always existed. I believed that through observing their conversations or evolving artworks, I could determine and understand their passions and therefore had a link into their future successes. Nowhere is this more evident than in the number of local, regional, state and national art awards my students received between 1978 and 2020. My students received numerous scholarships to continue their post high school educations. I'm proud that I was given the chance to reach out and impact the lives of the more than 4,000 students during my career. I learned from my students that it is more important to listen than it is to talk. I learned that making art is extremely crucial therapy for more students than you would think. I learned that their artworks were narratives that told stories they often could not put into words. I learned that my students did not care how much I knew about art until they knew how much I cared about them. On my good days and my bad days, when I was exhausted and my nerves were frazzled, I made sure they knew that I cared.
