Putting a Face on the Gallery

Published:
March 04, 2016
Colorful paper and paint flowers suspended from ceiling
For many Grinnellians, on campus and off, Tilly Woodward is the face of Faulconer Gallery. Although much of the effort for running a successful gallery is tucked behind the scenes, Woodward loves the fact that she gets to know students and art lovers of all ages.

"The work I do for the Faulconer Gallery is highly satisfying," she says. "I get to work with all ages of people, and through small interactions help them feel comfortable coming to the gallery and help them engage with art through looking, talking, and creating.

As curator of academic and community outreach, Woodward enjoys helping others learn about and create art. Whether she's "blowing glitter on a truck with children in the parks, helping neuro-diverse adults create self-portraits in clay, working with school children to create large group projects focused on the ideas of beauty and tribute, or working with college classes to help them discover meaning in an artwork through close observation," she says, "they are all the best parts of my jobs."

In her own life, she has made creative engagement a daily habit over decades. She says "that discipline has created skills in seeing, painting, and the ability to create meaning for myself and others through the inspection of small things that might be overlooked in life. It's the accumulation of small things that seems so important to me in life and in art — working again and again until your understanding becomes inherent, small brush strokes adding up to create a painting."

Woodward is an accomplished artist in her own right. Her paintings have been exhibited in hundreds of galleries, museums, and community settings both in America and overseas, and she's earned two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships.

She's also recognized for her work with the community. She won the Iowa Museum Art Educator of the Year 2016 , an award from the Governor in 2006 for Excellence in Cultural Programming, and the Grinnell Prize staff fellowship to Ghana. The staff fellowship, which gave her the chance to work in book arts directly with Ghanan former child slaves, is "probably at the top" of her proudest achievements, Woodward says.

Visit the Faulconer Gallery for information about current and upcoming exhibitions and events.

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