VGCC Art instructor wins ribbon at State Fair


Lelia Brigham

A painting by Vance-Granville Community College art instructor Lelia Brigham of Henderson (seen here in an art classroom at VGCC) won the Hostesses’ Choice Award in the Arts and Photography competition at the recently-concluded 2012 North Carolina State Fair. Her miniature pastel, “Vance County Tobacco Barn,” was the only piece selected from among over 200 works by 120 artists to receive the new award, which was determined by a panel of 12 Arts and Photography Department hostesses. Although Brigham has entered paintings in the State Fair competition many times over the past 20 years, she said that this was the first time she had won a prize there.

Brigham has been a part-time art instructor for VGCC since the fall of 1969, when she was one of the first three instructors hired to teach at what was then Vance County Technical Institute. Her art has won numerous awards and has been featured in the N.C. Community College System Art Exhibition and the Contemporary Southern Art Festival, among other art shows. Brigham helped found the Kerr Lake Art Society and has organized its art shows at VGCC. The Winston-Salem native has been drawing and painting since childhood and was trained at the Ringling School of Art in Florida.

Brigham will be teaching another six-week Painting class at VGCC, on Tuesdays, November 6 through December 11, from 9:15 a.m. until 12:15 p.m. in Room 5230 on the college’s Main Campus. Students will learn new techniques and receive meaningful feedback that will help them grow as artists. The cost of the course is $37. For more information and to register, contact Theresa Somerville at (252) 738-3427 or somervillet@vgcc.edu.