Christine Flanagan
SENIOR
MOMENTUM By Mary Ricketson
“I always knew I wanted to teach art,” said Chris Flanagan. “I loved to sketch and have notebooks from school where I covered the margins with drawings, mostly of horses.” Her enthusiasm and commitment led to a career with the Suwannee County School District from which she retired in 2010. She frequently runs into her former students while she is out and about, taking a few minutes to catch up or reminisce. When she retired, it was actually a former student who took her place as art teacher at Suwanneee High School. Chris and husband Joe moved to Suwannee County in the late 70s. Joe had a job with water management and she was a substitute teacher until hired full-time at the Boys Ranch to teach English and reading. After a few years, she left to raise her family and establish their homestead that over the years, besides housing children, also provided sanctuary to: horses, ducks, guineas, donkeys, goats, bunnies, a pot-bellied pig, dogs, cats, tortoises and lizards. While raising their children, she continued creating her own art and giving private lessons after school. She also worked with the Live Oak Artist Guild (of which she has been a member since 1979) to bring a program called “Art in the Classroom” to the students of Suwannee County. It was a grant program that provided posters of famous artists that the volunteers from the Guild could take to the students and give a history of that particular artist and their genre.
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