Welcome to the Williamson Street
Art Center!
The Williamson Street Art Center offers art instruction for people of all ages and abilities in a variety
of settings:
- Art classes and camps at the Williamson Street Art Center
- Art instruction elsewhere
- Community art projects throughout the Midwest
- Artist-in-residencies at schools and community centers
Works of art for individuals and groups are also available.
I believe that when people make art, they participate in the process of transformation.
Artistic activity allows each of us to engage in the most profound universal activity: creation. At the
same time, we are able to experience the most basic childhood impulse: play.
I also believe that everyone has the ability to express herself or himself artistically.
Everyone has the right to find joy, wonder and a sense of discovery through their own artistic creation.
I promise to do my best to help each person who works with me experience art in a way that enriches
their life.
Thank you for visiting the Williamson Street Art Center!
Sharon Kilfoy
Director
The mission of the Williamson Street Art Center is to use artistic activity as a means of
offering inspiration which will facilitate the growth of the creative spirit.
The Williamson Street Art Center strives to support individual and collective artistic expression by
encouraging an exploration of material, form, content, connection, and approach.
The vision of the Williamson Street Art Center is to be more than an art school.
As an organization, it serves as a hub of artistic activity that reaches into the larger community
through artist-in-residency programs and community arts projects.
As a place, it is a destination for people who hopefully return for inspiration, stimulation,
and renewal.
Visitors to the Williamson Street Art Center first discover art in the form of colorful paintings and
found art sculpture in the front garden. As you enter the main building, you encounter the classroom spaces
that periodically double as exhibition space. At times you will see my artwork on exhibit, as well as
artwork by students. Next you can wander amid the gardens and ponds in back. At the rear of the property
you will come upon the studio, partially hidden by trees, and marvel at the murals covering all four
sides of the building.
I hope that your visit to the Williamson Street Art Center will brighten your day and enrich
your life.
My intent is that you feel as if you have discovered an oasis on Williamson Street, and that this experience
of art will be carried with you into other areas of your life.
Sharon Kilfoy, Director of the Williamson Street Art Center, is a local artist whose murals, fabric pieces,
collages and assemblages are widely collected.
Sharon has extensive experience teaching art to people of all ages and abilities. She has been a guest artist
through numerous artist-in-residency programs in schools, neighborhood centers and communities throughout the
Midwest.
Her background as a community artist combined with her formal training as a studio artist ensures that
students have fun while they learn.
Sharon specializes in bringing divergent people together through community art projects which focus on
shared aspects of history and culture. In the classroom setting, she utilizes an endless variety of
materials in a curriculum she has developed to bring out students’ innate artistic capabilities while
they build confidence.
Sharon’s reputation as an art instructor is proven and respected.
For more than 20 years she used art to build resiliency in troubled children at the Respite Center, a
24-hour emergency/crisis child care center in Madison Wisconsin. There, she developed a curriculum that
uses art to help children recover from trauma. She continues to serve the Respite Center on a part time
basis. Sharon uses the knowledge she gained using art with troubled children, to ensure that all people
who work with her experience art in a positive way.
In founding the Williamson Street Art Center, Sharon combines her joy of making art with her ability to
offer inspiration to others.
She is enthusiastic about providing a positive experience for those who choose to work with her or visit
the center. Sharon is one of Williamson Street’s most long-standing artists. She embodies the spirit of
hopefulness, inclusion, and generosity for which Williamson Street is known.
Read Sharon's resume...
A City Uses Murals to Bridge Differences
Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program has won praise for building civic pride and helping to heal racial divisions.
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