DOCENT FEATURE
SHERRI KRAZL, MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
A docent since 2001, Linda Williams always has enjoyed visiting art museums, being an active member of the community and learning new things.
Born in Chicago, but raised in Columbus, she and her husband of nearly 50 years, Jack, are both graduates of the Ohio State University. She feels the secret to their success is to be part of a caring family—something that means a lot to both of them.
Jack’s work allowed their family to live all over the place, including Washington D.C., California, Atlanta (where their two daughters Melissa and Michelle were raised), Germany, St. Louis and New York, before settling here in Oxford in 2000. Highlights of Linda’s many residences include being a docent at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art and a year-long Art History class in New York. The course included an intense week-long residency program in a Vanderbilt mansion where the participants attended museums, programs and discussed their experiences.
In addition to her Art Museum activities, Linda also volunteers for the McGuffey Museum, the Oxford Community Art Center, and the hospital’s gift shop. She is a member of the Audubon Society, the Oxford Garden Club, the League of Women Voters and the Current Events Club. She loves the outdoors and stays very active birding and gardening as well as swimming, biking and yoga.
Specific to her experiences at the Art Museum, she loves to learn and to interact with the people and the art, and especially loves leading children’s activities—tours, Adventures in Art and Art Explorers. “One of the best tours I gave was a group of third and fourth graders. I often have them gather around on the floor to discuss a work of art; this particular piece was a washing machine with a rope squeezed tightly around it. It was so interesting to hear those kids—they aren’t afraid to say what they are thinking!” She also enjoys doing presentations for the Institute for Learning in Retirement. “The more you learn about something—the more you can appreciate it!”
She has many favorites in the museum’s collection, but, “if there was a fire, I would run straight for Hans Hofmann’s Blue Spell to save it. It’s so colorful and large and it’s so fun to talk with people about it, to see what they think.” Not able to narrow down any one particular type of art that she likes most, she learned some types of art that initially weren’t her favorites but grew on her, either through learning about them by doing her own research or by taking classes. Her message to others who may not know about the Art Museum is, “You MUST go because we are so fortunate to have it… the exhibitions change every semester so you should go regularly to experience new things each visit. And you will know it when you see the large red sculpture out front.”
Linda is a cancer survivor and believes to enjoy life you should be sure to have an “ahhh” experience each and every day. “See something beautiful every day – whether it’s a sunset or a child playing, or art in a museum.”