Link-Williams named North Carolina Art Educator of the Year for ‘04-‘05

Donna Link-Williams walked into a virtually empty school on the morning of Oct. 4 and started opening her mail. Inside one of the many unremarkable hand-addressed envelopes was a notification that proved an old adage — the third time’s a charm.

Link-Williams was named the recipient of the North Carolina Chapter of the National Art Education Association’s Art Educator of the Year honor after having been nominated two previous times. She will receive the honor at a conference in Wilmington on Nov. 5.

The first person to nominate her was Dr. Marianne Suggs, a professor at Appalachian State University, the second, former Alleghany High School principal Jeff Peale and most recently, by Pat Morrison, an Ashe High School art teacher, who is her colleague and friend.

Going through the process twice before, Link-Williams tried not to let herself get too excited about the prospect of being the recipient of the honor.

“In the back of my mind, I was thinking, ‘It would really be nice, but you’re in the pot with so much competition...’ I tried to be moderately, but not too, hopeful.”

An interest in art dates back to Link-Williams’ school years. “As a child, I had a deep interest in art and poetry that was encouraged by my parents and teachers,” she said. “My high school art teacher (Johnny Holcombe) told me, ‘I think you need something different.’”

She then applied to attend the North Carolina School of the Arts and was accepted. “It changed my life in a wonderfully positive way,” she said.

Link-Williams spent her junior and senior high school years there, where she graduated with honors in 1980. Her art teacher there, Clyde Porter, recommended that she go to a metropolitan area. Link-Williams then attended the State University of New York, College at Purchase.

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