Students find Fellowship in VGCC Art Classes
At Vance-Granville Community College’s Franklin County Campus, between ten and 12 men and women of various ages and backgrounds meet each Tuesday morning to enhance their artistic skills. Many of them enroll semester after semester to practice “lifelong learning.” Art classes will be held this summer from June 2 through Aug. 4, from 9 a.m. until noon and from 1 until 4 p.m. The cost for each course is $55.
Two women who share a fondness for the Franklin Campus art classes have something else in common: they both have bravely battled cancer.
Katie Spivey of Louisburg was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in 1998 but made a complete recovery. She calls herself “a living testimony” to the power of faith. After her illness, Spivey, who had drawn pictures since childhood, decided to pursue painting and leave a lasting legacy. She enrolled in VGCC art classes, where she met Janice Dickerson, a Franklin County resident who had been taking art classes from the college since the 1980s. In September 2008, Dickerson was diagnosed with lung cancer, and doctors said that they could not operate on her. When she learned of Dickerson’s diagnosis, Spivey remained remarkably optimistic. “I was positive because I had survived,” Spivey said. “I prayed for her. She had a lot of faith, too.” Dickerson was treated with a medication that was mostly used in lung cancer patients who, like her, had never smoked. The results have been extraordinarily successful. “This medicine has done wonders,” she said. “I believe the Lord is healing me. I’m doing everything now that I was doing before I found out I had cancer.” That includes her weekly art class, which she rarely misses, except to undergo medical tests. “The art is therapeutic, but the fellowship and friendship is a big part of it, too,” she said. Spivey agrees that being with her fellow art students and their instructor, Pam Danzer, is important to her. “Pam lets you paint what you want to paint, at your own pace,” Spivey said. “Coming to this class helps me to stay motivated.” Dickerson said that the VGCC art class has been “a blessing” in her life. Reflecting on the fact that both of them have now recovered from a devastating disease and are going on with their artistic endeavors, Spivey remarked, “God is still working miracles.”
For more information on art and other courses offered at the Franklin Campus , call campus director Anthony Pope at (919) 496-1567.
From left, cancer survivors and Franklin County residents Katie Spivey and Janice Dickerson work on paintings in their art class at VGCC’s Franklin County Campus. (VGCC photo)
