FACULTY R ETIR EMENTS
CO N CO R D AC A D EM Y M AG A ZI N E S PR I N G 2014
fter 34 years of teaching art at CA, Antoinette Winters is to be forgiven if she tears up when she talks about leaving. And she does. “It continues to amaze me when observing my students in the process of making art,” she says. “Their willingness to go with me, to trust me, and then throw themselves into the experience is still remarkable.” Winters moved to campus in 1976 with her husband, Brian, to run a house. She took a part-time teaching role in 1980, which also gave her the freedom to work on her own art. In 1987, she got a studio space in Waltham, Mass., “and I’m still there,” she says. “I always felt that the work I was doing in my studio had a significant impact on what I could bring back to the classroom and vice versa. I loved that. In every class, there was an exuberant embrace of whatever I asked the students to do. Then I’d go back to my studio and say to myself, ‘Ok, Antoinette, let’s apply that same willingness to explore and create.’” For Winters, art is all about process. “All these little decisions that the students make along the way that they don’t even anticipate from the beginning become really important,” she says. “Risk-taking is part of it. Mistakes are going to be made, and what do you do with that? If we can keep them moving through the difficult parts of art-making, the outcome, more often than not, is magical.” As much as this partnership has fueled her own creative energy, Winters says she looks forward to going back to her studio full time and having time to travel and connect with former students. She also looks forward to the birth of a grandchild: Her son, Damian Winters ’00, and his wife are expecting a baby this summer. “I’ll never be at a loss as to what to do,” she says.
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Kristie Gillooly
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Antoinette Winters Visual Arts