ART is the Key was established to help private, parochial, and charter schools along with other organizations to promote the Visual Arts. Linda Cross will mentor others through private art lessons, workshops, curriculum writing or designing art exhibitions. As an artist, she is interested in displaying her work at galleries and local venues.

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Mission Statement: "Connecting the Visual Arts to the Community!"

Linda Cross was appointed to the Board of Directors for the non-profit organization, Color Me Empowered, in 2017, and serves as an art instructor for Color Me Empowered Summer Art Camps. 

 

As an Advocate for the Visual Arts, Linda Cross has served on the Executive Council for the Texas Art Education Association. She also served as an officer of the Dallas Art Education Association. Presently, Linda Cross promotes the Visual Arts to her community by teaching Art in the Dallas Independent School District in Dallas, Texas. 

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Linda Cross has been an advocate for The Memory Project. This project has allowed her students to collaborate with this organization to draw or paint pictures of photographs of orphans from around the world. Since 2014, Linda has had students draw or paint seventeen portraits of orphans from El Salvador, Peru, Tanzania and The Congo.

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As an Art Educator, Linda Cross has been teaching Art for over thirty years. The last twenty-five years, she has been teaching students in the Dallas Independent School District.

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She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Art Education from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas in 1983. Then, in 2005, she pursued a master's degree from Texas Tech University and received her Masters of Art Education

in 2009.

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She received a Masters of Education from Belhaven University in 2017. Linda is currently pursuing the National Board Certification for Professional Teaching Standards in Early Adolescent through Young Adult Art. 

As an Artist, Linda Cross has created her own style of ceramics using alternative firing techniques. Although she learned the technique as a student at North Lake College in Irving, Texas, she perfected her style for her master's exhibition at Texas Tech University, at their distance learning campus in Junction, Texas. Her unique style known as FRIENDSHIP of the FEATHER, continues to be her signature style.

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Recently, Linda Cross has embarked on a journey learning about the world of ceramic jewelry. Eventually, Linda plans on merging her unique style with the ceramic jewelry techniques in order to create her own line of jewelry.

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Along with ceramics, Linda Cross has explored various mixed media techniques for two-dimensional images as well as for designing unique hand-painted tote bags. 

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As a Curriculum Writer, Linda Cross has designed Art lesson plans for all levels ranging form Pre-Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade. Linda Cross has also taught Art from Pre-Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade and is extremely knowledgeable of each stage of child development.

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Within the past three years, Linda Cross has help write the Sculpture

class curriculum for the High School Visual Arts Program in Dallas Independent School District.