Puckett Art Instructor Chuck Rhoads Wins Governor's Award for Excellence

Chuck Rhoads

Mississippi College graduate Chuck Rhoads has inspired and motivated his art students for the past 17 years in the Rankin County public schools.

At McLaurin Attendance Center, Pisgah and now Puckett High, the 53-year-old Mississippian has worked long hours to promote the arts on school campuses.

On the evening of February 24^th, Rhoads was honored for his service at the 2011 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts. He received the arts in education award at the program at the auditorium of the Mississippi Department of Education. Marty Stuart, the country music star from Philadelphia, Mississippi, served as the program’s master of ceremonies.

“A lot of my colleagues could have gotten the same award,” Rhoads said when reached at Puckett High Friday. “I’m honored they chose me.”

Raised in a football family with three older brothers who played the sport, including Wayne, who received a scholarship to the University of Alabama, a longtime gridiron powerhouse.

Chuck Rhoads took a different path. He excelled nationally at twirling at Wingfield High in Jackson and then at Mississippi College. He also studied art under superb MC professors like Sam Gore, an internationally celebrated artist. 

Rhoads received a bachelor’s degree in art education from MC in 1980 and a dozen years later earned his master’s in the field. Back in the early 1990s, award-winning Clinton watercolor artist Wyatt Waters was one of his instructors.

“MC was an answer to prayer for me,” Rhoads said of his experience at the Christian university.

Rhoads is definitely committed to teaching and making sure his students in rural Rankin County have the money to pay for their art education. Art fees can be $25 per person, and sometimes that can be too steep for families to pay.

In a “Clarion-Ledger” story about the awards program, it says Rhoads recycled telephone books and sold coloring books to maintain a surplus fund for art supplies.

“By giving my best to raise these funds, I also expect the best out of my students and their artwork,” Rhoads told reporter Sherry Lucas in the newspaper story.

For nearly two decades, students are getting one of Mississippi’s best art teachers. Rhoads says he’s also written grants that have helped him raise thousands of dollars to benefit school art programs.

In a few years, Rhoads says he would like to become a college professor. “I want to be like Dr. Gore – come back to my place of work and still do things,” he says. An 83-year-old sculptor from Clinton, Gore continues to teach part-time at his alma mater, Mississippi College.

The evening’s arts salute in Jackson saw other winners in the spotlight like bluesman Pinetop Perkins, 97, who received the lifetime achievement award. Among others, Jackson textile artist Gwendolyn Magee received the award for artistic excellence. Singer-songwriter-producer Mac McAnally picked up the excellence in music honor.

Hours before the awards program in Jackson, Chuck Rhoads met Marty Stuart when the country singer stopped by the Puckett High student art exhibit at the Capitol. That really delighted the award-winning art instructor. “Marty Stuart was very impressed with the students’ exhibit,” said the Jackson native.

At the event, Gov. Haley Barbour and others said the arts are a positive force when it comes to enhancing Mississippi’s economy, education and culture.

“There is no part of Mississippi that is not touched by the arts in some way,” Barbour said.