Sydney Porter Williams is a community-based teaching artist whose work uses art as a form of transformation in classrooms, communities, and personal practice. She is the Community Arts Research & Education (CARE) Program Director, the Learning & Engagement Coordinator for the Alvin Gittins Gallery, and an instructor in Art Teaching at the University of Utah. She served as Artist in Residence at the Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital in 2025, contributing to research on arts-based approaches to quality of life for stroke survivors. She works closely with the University of Utah’s Arts & Health Innovation Lab and has published on mixed-methods and arts-based intervention research in Methods in Psychology.
Porter Williams holds an MFA in Community-Based Art Education and an Honors BFA in Art Teaching, both from the University of Utah. She has extensive experience facilitating community artmaking and collaboration, and was named the Utah Art Education Association’s Preservice Educator of the Year in 2022. Porter Williams curated and installed community-based art exhibitions in the Gittins Gallery at the University of Utah in 2025 and 2026. She was also awarded a Utah Museum of Fine Arts grant to co-create an interactive exhibition with her students, on view from 2024 to 2025.
Her pedagogical practice is interwoven with her multidisciplinary studio work, where she creates installations, sound, sculpture, and performance work that explores grief, memory, identity, religious abuse, and intergenerational trauma. Her current practice uses artifacts to examine how personal and familial histories shape the self. Through this work, Porter Williams approaches artmaking as a dialogical and therapeutic practice, creating space for vulnerability, connection, and transformation. She has exhibited in regional galleries and museums, including the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Bountiful Davis Art Center, and the Springville Museum of Art.
Education
Master of Fine Arts in Community-Based Art Education | University of Utah | 2024
Thesis title: “Reclaiming Eden: Artmaking for Internal Transformation” | Supervisor: Dr. Beth Krensky, Ph.D.
Honors Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Teaching | University of Utah | 2020
Experience
2025 – present | Community Arts Research & Education (CARE) Program Director | University of Utah College of Fine Arts
2024 - present | Adjunct Assistant Professor in Art Teaching | University of Utah Department of Art and Art History
ART 4590: Art Teaching Senior Seminar (Fall 2025)
ART 4540: Art Teaching Practicum (Spring 2025)
ART 3550: Art in the Community (Spring 2026)
ART 3015: Methods and Materials of Art (Fall 2024 & 2025)
ART 2201: Action (Fall 2024 & 2025, Spring 2025 & 2026)
ART 1109: Social Practice (Fall 2026, Spring 2026)
2025 – present | Learning & Engagement Coordinator | University of Utah Alvin Gittins Gallery
2025 | Hospital Artist-in-Residence, Research Assistant | Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital
2023 - 2024 | University Teaching Assistant | University of Utah Graduate School and the Department of Art and Art History
2017 - 2023 | Community Art Educator | ArtsBridge at the University of Utah
2022 - 2023 | Mathematics and Reading Tutor and Substitute Teacher | Waterford School
2021 - 2022 | Graduate Teaching Assistant and K-12 and Community Outreach Educator |J. Willard Marriott Library Book Arts Program
2020 - 2021 | Museum Assistant and Project Manager | Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts
Exhibitions
2026 Real Grief | Potential Grief | Solo Exhibition | Bountiful Davis Art Center
2026 | The Art of Us: Collective Art for Sustainable Communities | Curator, Group Exhibition | Alvin Gittins Gallery
2025 – 26 | 39th Annual Spiritual & Religious Show | Juried Group Exhibition | Jurors: Dr. Aaron Rosen and Maddie Blonquist | Springville Museum of Art
2025 - 26 | Relative Truths | Juried Group Exhibition | Curator: Peter Hay | Utah Museum of Fine Arts
2025 | Statewide Emerging Artists’ Annual | Juried Group Exhibition | Awarded Best in Show by juror Jorge Rojas | Bountiful Davis Art Center
2025 | Artists Everywhere: Portraits of Community | Curator, Group Exhibition | Alvin Gittins Gallery
2024 - 25 | Interwoven: Social Transformation through Art and Community | Installation at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.
2024| Reclaiming Eden | Solo Exhibition at the University of Utah’s Alvin Gittins Gallery.
2024| Selfographies | Group Exhibition at the University of Utah’s Alvin Gittins Gallery.
2022 | The/An Abyss| Group exhibition at the University of Utah’s Alvin Gittins Gallery.
2022 | “Extrapolation”| Group exhibition at Nostalgia Café in Salt Lake City, Utah.
2020 - 2021 |97th Annual Spring Salon | Juried group exhibition at the Springville Museum of Art.
2020 | 2020 Annual Student Art Exhibition | Juried group exhibition presented virtually through the University of Utah’s Department of Art and Art History.
2020 | Social Distancing | Juried group exhibition presented virtually through the University of Utah’s Department of Art and Art History.
2019 | 2019 Annual Student Art Exhibition | Juried group exhibition at the University of Utah’s Alvin Gittins Gallery.
2018 | Rising Together / A Digital Archive of Zines with a Social Conscience | Juried group exhibition presented virtually through the College Book Art Association.
2018 | Building Blocks: Arts and Letters | Group exhibition at the Draw, Inc. gallery in Salt Lake City, Utah.
2018 | Behind-the-Scenes | Group exhibition at the Draw, Inc. gallery in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Awards
2025 Best in Show | Statewide Emerging Artists’ Annual | Bountiful Davis Art Center
2024 Research Mentoring Certificate | Research Education at the University of Utah2023 | ACME Lab Proposal Award | Utah Museum of Fine Arts
2022 | Preservice Educator of the Year | Utah Art Educators Association
2022 | University Teaching Assistantship Award | University of Utah Graduate School
2020 | Honors Designation | University of Utah Honors College
2020 | Undergraduate Research Scholar Designation | University of Utah Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program
2019 | Honorable Mention| Juried group exhibition at the University of Utah’s Alvin Gittins Gallery
2019 | Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program Award | University of Utah Office of Undergraduate Research
Research, Publications, Curriculum, and Appearances
2025 | Arts-Mix: A Pragmatist Approach and Framework for Researcher-Practitioners in Mixed -Methods and Arts-Based Intervention Research | Methods in Psychology | Published December 2025.
2024 | Reclaiming Eden | Arts-Based Research Presentation | Conference Installation and Presentation, Stop Stigma Together National Summit.
2022 | Art for Critical Consciousness | Presented curriculum at the 2022 Utah Art Educators Association Spring Conference.
2021 | Art as Liberatory Practice | Presented research at the 2021 American Educational Studies Association General Conference.
2020 | The Murray Murals Project: Connecting Lives on Canvas | Published research in the University of Utah’s 2020 Undergraduate Research Journal.
2019 | The Murray Murals Project: Connecting Lives on Canvas | Presented research at Research on Capitol Hill and the Undergraduate Research Symposium.
2019 - 2020 | An Act of Hope: Youth, Art and Activism | Undergraduate research project performed under the direction of Dr. Beth Krensky.
2019 | Strengthening Community by Helping Our Environment | Presented at the Utah Art Educators Association Spring Conference and Evening for Educators.
Leadership, Service, and Committee Roles
2026 – Present | Art Teaching Club Advisor | University of Utah Department of Art & Art History
2024 – 2025, Spring 2026 | Research Mentor | Undergraduate Research Opportunities Award | University of Utah Office of Undergraduate Research
2023 – 2024 | Search Committee Member | Search Committee for the Mary Lois Wheatley Presidential Chair of the Department of Art & Art History, University of Utah
2023 – 2024 | Vice President | MFA Studio Arts Club | University of Utah
2018 – 2020 | Co-President | Art Teaching Club | University of Utah
Media and Blog Coverage
Christiansen, Erin. “Creating Societal Change Through Art.” Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute | University of Utah, March 26, 2025.https://lassonde.utah.edu/creating-societal-change-through-art/.
Finer Points Blog. “University of Utah College of Fine Arts - Two Fine Arts Students Featured in University of Utah 2020 Undergraduate Research Journal.” Finer Points Blog, 28 May 2020. finearts.utah.edu/news/the-finer-points-blog/item/710-two-fine-arts-students-featured-in-university-of-utah-2020-undergraduate-research-journal
Levergneux, Louise. “Marriott Library, University of Utah.” ½ Measure Studio Blog, 27 May 2018. https://louiselevergneux.com/half-measure-studio/2018/5/27/vx2vc1omp1f2iukije3rh2z54babr0
Ponce, Mikaela. “Be a Part of Something Bigger in ‘Interwoven’,” November 9, 2024.https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2024/11/09/interwoven-umfa-social-transformation-community/.
Ponce, Mikaela. “MFA Thesis Exhibitions: ‘Reclaiming Eden’ and ‘Woven Worlds.’” Daily Utah Chronicle, May 25, 2024, sec. Arts. https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2024/05/24/thesis-reclaiming-eden-woven-worlds/.
University of Utah Department of Art & Art History. “Sydney Porter Williams & Dr. Beth Krensky Recognized in 2022 Utah Art Educator Association Awards - Department of Art & Art History,” March 29, 2022. https://www.art.utah.edu/sydney-porter-williams-dr-beth-krensky-recognized-in-2022-uaea-awards/.
Walchli, Amelia. “Sydney Porter Williams included in Undergraduate Research Journal.” Department of Art and Art History, 1 June 2020. https://www.art.utah.edu/sydney-porter-williams-our-journal/
Walchli, Amelia. “Art Teaching student Sydney Porter presents Murray Murals research to UT legislature.” Department of Art and Art History, 7 March 2019. https://www.art.utah.edu/sydney-porter-presents-murray-murals/
Zarate, Rebecca, Sydney Porter Williams, Fiona Giudici, Malissa Morrell, Lynn Maxfield, and Julia Miller. 2025. “Arts-Mix: A Pragmatist Approach and Framework for Researcher-Practitioners in Mixed –Methods and Arts -Based Intervention Research.” Methods in Psychology 13 (December): 100208.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.metip.2025.100208.