Betty Kort became the Executive Director of the Cather Foundation in 2003. Betty comes to this position after twenty-five years of teaching both English and art, almost entirely within the Hastings Public Schools System. Betty was the chair of the Art Department at Hastings High School for ten years. A life-long devotee of the arts, she is passionate about the visual arts. Her interests revolve around painting, drawing, and pottery. Her connections to Willa Cather most closely revolve around Cather’s own interest in the arts, particularly the visual arts. As Cather chose to view the world through the eyes of a visual artist, painting pictures with words, so too does Betty Kort see the world through the eyes of a visual artist, particularly through photography, painting, and drawing.

Photography: In 2006, Betty was commissioned to photograph artifacts in the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial Collection owned by the Nebraska State Historical Society and artifacts owned by the Cather Foundation. Her Cather Foundation Artifacts (Photography) Collection is on tour at this time. See shows for a list of exhibit locations.

Teaching Career:: Betty was a Cooper Foundation Award winning teacher, the 1993 Nebraska Teacher of the Year, and a Disney Award Teacher (and is featured in “Creativity in the Classroom” a video and handbook created through collaboration between the Disney Learning Partnership and Project Zero at Harvard University). She was employed by the Disney Learning Partnership during the summer for several years. She was the first teacher in Nebraska to be recognized as an NEH Teacher Scholar in 1989, which included a one-year sabbatical. Betty is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Nebraska-Kearney; was a fourteen-year member of the Willa Cather Foundation Board of Governors (serving on the Executive Committee and as vice-president and president of the organization); has been a board member (six years) and president of the Hastings Literacy Program; and has been a presenter on various subjects on numerous occasions on the local, state, and national levels.

BettyKort.com 2007-2008. All rights reserved.  All content is copywrited, belonging to Betty Kort. For use of images or content, please contact the artist directly.
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