Julia Sanks loved helping students.
A community-oriented individual, Julia spent much of her time giving back and encouraging students through museum programs. She recruited many past and current docents as an advocate for the museum and its docent program.
Her passion and investment allowed her to become president of the program in 2014. During this time, she also tutored at Sylvan Learning Center, which she and her husband owned for 10 years.
Her longstanding service to the museum and passion for connecting with students will be remembered by a special gallery wall dedicated to student art, celebrating Julia and her time facilitating fun and creativity while working with students.
When she died, in February of 2020(opens in new tab), community docents and Emily Hogrefe-Ribeiro (the previous assistant curator of education) sat down to brainstorm how they could honor Julia’s time at the museum.
The group decided that a student gallery wall, installed outside the Mary and Michael Erlanger Studio Classroom, would expand upon Julia’s passion for helping students explore their creativity in the classroom. While braving a pandemic, the docents were instrumental in raising funds for the wall. Sherrie Olejnik, then docent president, helped push the project forward through supply chain struggles.
Sage Kincaid, associate curator of education, said, “It will be a flexible system with gallery lighting that will allow for student-made art, both 2-D and 3-D, to be displayed. All the 5th-grade students, as well as many from other grades, in the Clarke County School District visit the museum each year for a tour of the galleries and to make an art project related to something they have seen in the galleries. The classroom is where these art activities take place so it makes sense to have it close to the classroom.”
The memorial will help students and younger visitors feel included in the museum by seeing their work on display, expanding on the museum’s mission of supporting art education and students.
The gallery wall is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2022, and there will be an unveiling celebration in Julia’s honor.
By Taylor Nettis
