Anna Elizabeth Keener (1895-1982)Anna Keener was a painter, graphic artist, teacher, and writer, was born in Flagler, Colorado, and grew up in Dalhart, Texas. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1916, and a Master of Arts degree in 1918 from Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas. She also attended summer sessions of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, in 1917 and 1919. At Bethany College, Keener was both a student and assistant to Birger Sandzen, a professor of block printing Keener credited as one of her finest teachers. (She also thought highly of etchers Paulus and Bertha Jacques, and lithographers Joseph A. Imhof and George Myasaki, teachers she would encounter in her varied and many-year career as a student of art).Keener attended evening classes at the Detroit School of Design while serving as a clerk in the United States Navy in that city during World War I. After the War, she taught in the Globe, Arizona, public schools, then at Kansas City High School, in Kansas, while attending the Kansas City Art Institute, in Missouri, in 1923. Keener moved to Alpine, Texas to teach drawing at Sul Ross State Teachers College, from 1925-1927. She lived again in Dalhart for a time before teaching in New Mexico schools at Red River, Ojo Caliente, Las Vegas, and Gallup. She painted a mural in the McKinley County Courthouse in Gallup.Keener studied in Mexico City in 1941, and in 1942, she began a twelve-year period as teacher and head of the art department at Eastern New Mexico University, Portales. During this time, Keener was back in school in 1949 at Colorado State Teachers College, Greeley, and in 1951, she received a Master of Arts degree from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. She studied again in 1953 in Mexico City. Retiring from Eastern New Mexico University in 1954, Keener moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she was active in the art life, jurying exhibitions and continuing to paint. In 1962 she was back in school yet again, studying at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. She was the author of Spontaneity in Design (Kansas City: Missouri Valley Press, 1923). She was married to Louis Raymond Wilton, and Keener died in her Santa Fe home.Keener held memberships in the American Artists Professional League; American Federation of Arts; Art of America Society; Artists Equity; International Institute of Arts and Letters; National and New Mexico Art Education Associations; Southern States Art League; and Western Art Association.Anna Keener's work is in the collections of Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas; Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas; Harry Ransom Center, Austin, Texas; Texas Historical Society; Museum of Fine Arts and New Mexico State Library, Santa Fe; Santa Fe Public Library; Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico; San Francisco Public Library, California; John H. Vanderpoel Art Association, Chicago, Illinois; Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas; and University of Oklahoma, Norman. Anna Elizabeth Keener (1895-1982)(Mrs. Louis Raymond Wilton). B: Flagler, Colorado. D: Santa Fe, New Mexico.Printmaker, painter, muralist, graphic artist, teacher.Alpine, Dalhart. Studied: Art Institute of Chicago (B.A., 1916); Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas (M.A., 1918); Birger Sandzén; Detroit School of Design (1919); Kansas City Art Institute (1922- 1923); Mexico City (1941, 1953); Colorado State Teachers College, Greeley (1949); University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (M.A., 1951); Randall Davey; Bertha Evelyn Jacques; Joseph A. Imhoff; George Myasaki; James Pinto; California College of Art and Crafts, Oakland (1962). Member: Southern States Art League; American Federation of Arts; Western Art Association; American Artists Professional League; Art of America Society; Artists Equity; International Institute of Arts and Letters; New Orleans Arts & Crafts Club. Exhibitions: McPherson High School, Kansas, 1915, 1916; University of Kansas, Topeka, 1916; Messiah Festival, Lindsborg, Kansas, 1916, 1920, 1921, (two desert landscapes); Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, 1917; Taos Art Society, Artists of the Mid-West Exhibition, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1917, The Ranch-Wyoming, A Wyoming Meadow, War Camp Community Service Club, El Paso, 1919, Wyoming Hills, Landscape; Emporia Chamber of Commerce, Kansas, 1921, Wyoming Hill, Hollyhocks; Mid-Western Artists Exhibition, Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri, 1922, The Barn on the Hill (block print) (prize), 1922, (honorable mention), 1923, 1925; Dallas Woman's Forum, 1926, 1927, 1931; Texas Artist Exhibition, Fort Worth, 1927, Cathedral Dome from Apache Trail (pastel); Southern States Art League, 1930, A Texas Sunrise; American Legion, Dalhart, 1933; International Exhibit of Fine Arts, Stedelyn Museum, Amsterdam, Holland, 1933, (sixteen paintings); Gallup Federal Art Center, New Mexico, 1939, (solo), including Navajo Cathedral, The Crossmaker, Payday, Questa Church; National Art Week Exhibition, Gallup Art Center, 1941; Fiesta Show, Santa Fe, 1945, Orchids; Painters and Sculptors of New Mexico, Santa Fe, 1949, 1950; El Paso Sun Carnival, 1949; New Mexico Artists, Governor's Office, Santa Fe, 1953; La Posada Inn, Santa Fe, 1953, (joint); New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, 1953, Behind the Scene (lithograph) (prize), 1956, (prize), 1958, (solo), 1968; Distinguished Prints by New Mexico Graphic Artists, Gallup, New Mexico, 1955, Behind the Scene (lithograph); Landscape Interpretations, Las Vegas Arts Association, New Mexico, 1956, Winter, Morning, Shifting Light; Tucson Art Festival, Arizona, 1958, (solo); Springville Museum of Art, Utah, 1957, 1958, (solo), 1960, 1967; Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, 1958, 1959, Motif IV-No. 8, (monoprint) (honorable mention) 1962, Untitled (collagraph) (honorable mention); The Sandzén Memorial Gallery, Lindsborg, 1959, (solo; Western Art, Amarillo Fat Stock Show, 1960; Amarillo High Plains ler 1960 (solo; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1964, (solo); New Mexico Arts Commission, Santa Fe, 1967, (solo); New Mexico State Fair, Albuquerque. Murals: McKinley County Courthouse, Gallup, New Mexico. Collections: San Francisco Public Library; John H. Vanderpoel Art Association, Chicago; Sul Ross State University, Alpine; Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon; Hoosier Salon, Chicago; McKinley County Courthouse, Gallup, New Mexico; University of Oklahoma, Norman; Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery, Linsborg, Kansas, including The Fruit Stall (woodblock); Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, Behind the Scene (lithograph); New Mexico State Library and Santa Fe Public Library, Santa Fe; Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico; Harry Ransom Center, Austin, TX, The Bluff Top. Keener was a native of Dalhart. She was an assistant to Birger Sandzén at Bethany College. He was a clerk in the U.S. Navy in Detroit, Michigan, during World War I. She taught in the Globe Arizona public schools in 1920. She moved to Kansas City in 1921. Keener attended art school and taught at Kansas City High School. Keener was the director of art at Sul Ross State Teachers College, Alpine (1925-1927). She moved to Dalhart before moving to teach in the public schools of Red River, Ojo Calient, Las Vegas, and Gallup, New Mexico. She moved to Taos and taught from a one room school house in 1931. Keener taught art classes at the Gallup Federal Art Center in 1939. She was a teacher at Eastern New Mexico College, Portales (1942-1954). Keener moved to Santa Fe and remained active as an artist and a juror in regional art exhibitions. Sources: Casey; Collins and Opitz; Dawdy; Falk; Fielding; Kovinick and Yoshiki-Kovinick; Mallett, Index; O'Brien; Petteys; Powers; Robertson and Nestor; Roper V2, page 121.