Artist Biography
Rhonda Horton was born in Euclid Ohio, and as a young child she began to capture the world around her through drawing and photography with a mention in poetry receiving recognition and award. She moved from Ohio to Alaska at age 10 and pursued art through public school in drawing, industrial arts, fashion design, photography, painting, and music.
While Rhonda and her husband Rich raised their family together in the Matanuska Valley, Alaska, she was set designer for adult and children musicals, along with children’s community theater camps. She became actively involved in art at the public schools serving as local chair, co-chair, and regional support for the National Parent Teacher Association, Cultural Arts Program “Reflections.” She taught charcoal drawing along with numerous art projects in a multi-age classroom and was lead Teaching Artist in the construction of two large ceramic tile murals with students for hallway installation at Snowshoe Elementary School, Wasilla, Alaska.
Rhonda received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, with studio emphasis in printmaking and drawing, and continued with additional Post Baccalaureate K-12 Art Education with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Rhonda is a teaching artist with the Artist In Schools Program at the Alaska State Council on the Arts and is on the State Teaching-Artist Roster (STAR artist). She has taught K-12 Art in rural Alaska through residency grant programs and with the Northern Journeys Education Grant Program with Anchorage School District and University of Alaska, Anchorage.
Rhonda’s work has received local and national recognition and awards including Artist Award, U. S. Capitol Christmas Tree, 2015. She has shown her work in Southcentral Alaska with several individual exhibits and numerous juried and group exhibits within Alaska and the United States. Her work is in public and private collections including various public schools in Alaska, University of Alaska, Anchorage, and the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University.