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When Saturday visitors to the Art Museum meet volunteer Judy Smith at the front desk, they're charmed by her warmth and enthusiasm, her positive attitude.
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Judy Smith |
What they don't realize is that Smith is probably one of the luckiest people alive. Just last September, Smith experienced a frightening brush with pancreatic cancer. Treated immediately, with expert medical care - and as she says, "some big-time guardian angels looking out for me" - she came through the experience and, at recent checkups, has been pronounced disease-free. But she also shares some of the credit for her recovery with the Art Museum.
"The Museum really helped my recovery," she says. "After being gone for three months (during treatment), I was really glad to get back. It helped me get back to being myself."
Although she had no art training - she retired from a 32-year career in Loudoun County, Virginia, as a physical education teacher before moving to the Grand Strand in 2011 - Smith had always had an appreciation for the arts. After moving to the Market Common community in 2014, and looking for things nearby to do, she happened to visit the Art Museum with some friends.
"I was just hooked," she recalls, comparing her experience with that of many of the visitors she meets at the Museum. "So often, it's just by chance that they find it - even though it's pretty well publicized - but when they leave, they're saying, 'I've just got to come back.' "
She recalls one woman who had come to Myrtle Beach with her husband to celebrate her 40th birthday. Bored with the beach, the woman told her husband she would go and look at the Art Museum for 10 minutes or so. "Two hours later, she was still here," Smith says. "Her husband was probably wondering what happened to her!"
Smith says she enjoys meeting people, learning where they are from and trading tips about the area. But she also enjoys seeing the reactions of first-time visitors to the Museum. "They're surprised at the quality of the exhibitions: the quality of the work, the history that's incorporated into the exhibits, and that they're so professionally put together. Like now, we have three different exhibits in the Museum, but they all go together. It just pulls you in."
She has nothing but praise for Museum staffers: their knowledge, friendliness and helpfulness to visitors. "They really work hard to promote art," she says. That includes the many programs and exhibits geared toward children. One of her first assignments was working on the Tea Porch during the LEGOs-based Art of the Brick exhibition. The area had been set up to allow children to create their own works of art with Lego bricks.
"The kids would come in and they'd get so focused on building their masterpieces that some wouldn't want to leave!" she recalls.
Although impressed by all the exhibits she's seen at the Museum, Smith says her favorite is the annual high school students' juried exhibition, which she says "blows me away - the creativity, the vision they show. And they're all so humble, saying things like 'I never thought I'd even make it into the show.' "
To would-be Museum volunteers, Smith emphasizes that no one should hesitate to sign on, regardless of their level of experience. "You don't have to have any art knowledge, but you'll certainly learn. I've already learned a lot about the history and culture of South Carolina. All you have to do is smile and be welcoming."
"The great thing about the Art Museum," she adds, "is everybody leaves happy."
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