NWCC Art Instructor Lucia Nelson Chosen as NW's Humanities Council Teacher of the Year
Senatobia, MS (03/03/2026) — Northwest Mississippi Community College art instructor Lucia Nelson was selected as the college's Humanities Council Teacher of the Year. As a part of this honor, she will do a presentation on March 27 at 10 a.m. in the Haraway Center room 102. The lecture is free and open to the public.
The Mississippi Humanities Council has been recognizing outstanding instructors at Mississippi's colleges and universities since 1995. Nelson is among a group of recipients who were honored statewide.
The title of her presentation is "From Museum to Music: The Appropriation of Fine Art in Album Covers" and is a study of visual appropriation and dialogue between art history and pop culture. She said in this presentation, she hopes to explore the topics of album cover design and analyze how musicians and designers repurpose art to create new meaning in our postmodern lens. She said that this will explore various historic periods and artistic movements and will discuss a variety of musical genres.
Nelson has loved various album covers, but there are a few from the classical art period that stick with her, such as Muddy Waters' "Father and Sons" album inspired by the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michaelangelo. It takes what's expected about the painting and subverts it. Nelson explained this a big part of the postmodern art movement is recycling older art and turning it into something new. It brings about questions and discussion, such as is this honoring the original creator? Does art beget art? Are there any truly original ideas or just recreations of old ideas?
According to Nelson, art isn't simply just a means of beauty or a vain attempt at capturing the world. Instead, art helps us solve complex issues, cope with challenging ideas, and reflect on history.
"It's the only skill I came into the world with," Nelson said.
Nelson said there's a deeper thread to the importance of not only this topic, but to why art is vital to humanity, which is that art is about solving problems. It's about creative solutions to mundane issues.
Nelson explained that art is more than its beauty and interesting angles. It's about problem solving, and it is a visual history of what was and what currently is. It teaches us about people in the past as well as people in the present. Sometimes art even teaches us about ourselves.
She said she believes in its ability to change perspectives, attitudes and thoughts. She said that it's a joy to teach students, and that's what gets her up every day.
Outside of work, she is raising two teenage sons, Noah and John Dee, one of which will be starting his freshman year at Northwest in the fall of 2026.
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Lucia Nelson, photo by Carly Fox.