Our world is always changing. But the role that art plays in it is as essential as ever says William Paul Thomas, Visiting Assistant Professor of Painting Foundations at Guilford College.
“Once you realize that art exists beyond the walls of art galleries, and that it informs the things you wear, what you eat and the design of the places you live, it becomes a given that art and creativity will always be relevant because it evolves as the world evolves,” Will said.
The Chicago-born artist has been a presence in the North Carolina art scene for more than a decade, beginning as a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before teaching at both UNC and Duke University. He began as an instructor at Guilford in 2018 before moving to his current full-time role last August.
Meanwhile, he also works as the exhibits curator for Hidden Voices, a Caswell County-based nonprofit that specializes in highlighting the stories of underserved populations through the arts. Also, he isvice chair of the Durham Art Guild Executive Board of Directors.
Will may have a lot of things on his plate, but he still relishes the opportunity to be a part of the Guilford campus community and get to know his students.
“I enjoy gaining a deeper understanding of the people around me through creative interventions,” he says. “In the classroom this includes designing prompts that encourage students to explore the depths of their individual lived experiences.”
Guilford’s Art program, Will says, allows him to share his skills with students just beginning their artistic journey. It is his hope that they will build off of that to enhance the world around them going forward.
“The Art program asks students to develop their ability to deconstruct, analyze and appreciate the complex systems that run our lives,” he says. “It encourages students to exercise their own agency in impacting the aesthetics and functions of those systems.”
Will wants today’s students to focus on their own work even as they broaden their perspectives on the wide variety of artistic approaches available to them.
“Students having access to so many different kinds of art on their personal devices has raised the standard for what it means for an artwork to be truly awesome,” he says. “For students being introduced to using art as a tool of self-expression, this can also be intimidating, especially if you believe your creative output has to look like the things you see online that get lots of likes.”
But it is not just about working with Art faculty and majors, Will states. He wants to inspire those at Guilford focused on studies outside his field so they can understand the influence and value of creativity and apply it to their areas of interest. And he hopes other faculty working with Art majors do the same.