Makers & Mentors: Hague Williams

Churning, Screenprint on paper and collage, 20x16", 2023

Art as Transformation, Teaching as Practice 

I teach art because it changes people, not just in skill or technique, but in how they perceive themselves, others, and the world around them.

After over twenty years in the classroom, I’ve seen firsthand how making art helps students process their identity, confront history, explore emotions, and—perhaps most importantly—connect with something larger than themselves.

Teaching isn’t a fallback to making art; it’s a parallel, sometimes intersecting path that keeps me sharp, accountable, and reflective. It challenges me to stay present and recognize meaning in images, gestures, and forms. That same urgency drives my studio practice, where I employ symbolism, history, and abstraction to explore power structures and transformation.

My commitment to the role of art in human connection has extended beyond the classroom through Art for Health, a creative initiative that embeds artists within Rush Medical University’s Global Health Program. For the past ten years, I’ve traveled alongside doctors to underserved communities in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, leading arts-based projects that support healing, communication, and resilience in places marked by deep hardship.

This year, I will be working with Haitian children living on the outskirts of Duquesa—the largest open-air landfill in Latin America—on a socially engaged project that will culminate in a public exhibition in Chicago this October.

Teaching is not always graceful—it’s exhausting, vulnerable work, often under-supported in systems that fail to value the arts or emotional labor. Still, I do it because I believe in it. And because I’ve witnessed that moment when a student creates something honest and sees themselves in it—that spark of recognition, clarity, and courage. That moment is as real and necessary as any exhibition. For me, teaching and making are inseparable—a shared devotion to curiosity, service, and the belief that art can, and does, change lives. 

Hague Williams Chair, Fine Arts Department Landrum High School Landrum, SC

Instagram: @haguewilliams

Web: https://www.haguewilliams.com/