William Raines

William Raines received his Bachelor of Science in Art from Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska. He then attended Truman State University for his Master of Art Education and finished his terminal degree at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California with a Master of Fine Arts in studio production.

He currently is an art instructor at Fresno State and Fresno City College, where he has taught a range of classes from Drawing to Content and Form, beginning in 2008.

His participation in the global art community includes the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, presenter for the Arts & Education Summit Region 7: Create the State,

Presenter for the Arts Education Summit for California County Superintendents Arts Initiative “ Arts in School”, Visiting Artist for the “Walking of Art” at East Carolina University North Carolina, Visiting Art Educator/Guest Artist for the Second International Symposium on Creativity and Child Development at Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China. He also participated with the CSU Summer Arts 2022 held at Fresno State as the Course Coordinator for Art > Anthropocene < Action and recruited six guest artists from California to Virginia to participate in the course.

His various honors and awards include: Fresno Unified School District Artist in Residence Grant, Fresno Arts Council Horizon Award for Outstanding Citizen Awards in the Arts, and Fresno Arts Council Community Enrichment Program Grant for his development of the Partners in Focus Program for youth enrichment through the arts. He seeks to bring various levels of Art Education to the wider student population of the San Joaquin Valley at all levels.

He is the Co-Owner and Co-Founder of Corridor 2122 Art Gallery in Fresno since 2004. The gallery and working space serves as a venue for research and experiment in art projects and curatorial programs that provide cultural and educational opportunities to the greater population of the Central San Joaquin Valley.

We are currently living in fluid territories where our concept of home no longer applies only to the traditional configuration. We continue to grapple with issues of new geopolitical positions of constant change and displacement, including the new transitory position of communication channels between different parts of the country that sometimes become stuck in “between zones” like the refugee experience.

In other words, is it time to jump ship in order to secure a new place and stand our ground?