Born in 1866 and a lifelong resident of Longmeadow, Alice Faith Willard was the first drawing (art) teacher in the Longmeadow Schools. She also taught in Ludlow and East Longmeadow in a unified school district. She studied at the Massachusetts Normal Art School (founded in 1873) in Boston (now the Massachusetts College of Art and Design). In 1897 she attended the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art and studied under William Merritt Chase, who was arguably the most important teacher of American artists around the turn of the 20th-century.

The collection includes pencil and charcoal sketches, watercolors and oils. Her subject matter was mostly what was in her immediate surroundings: scenes in Forest Park, Longmeadow, and Mount Holyoke.  She also drew flowers, trees, landscapes, and still-life's, as well as children, the elderly, women in fancy hats, and marble statues.

This exhibit recognizes the 25th anniversary of the 1999 donation of…