eCREATIVE
trauma and abuse survivors. Wagner says
the Academy is supported by the
community through financial donations
and other contributions such as art
supplies and other items.
Many of Wagner’s students come
from difficult family situations and parents
have told her about the positive changes
they have seen in their children as a result
that killed her aunt, grandmother, and
brother. Today now fortysomething
with two adult sons, the aftermath of
that accident still haunts her. “I keep
trying to understand why I survived and
no one else did,” she said. That tragedy
has stayed with her all these years but
she says today she chooses to find the
positive things that could come from
- HEATHER WAGNER
of her work with them. “When kids who’ve
been bullied are accepted through the art
they create, it really makes a big difference
in their lives,” Wagner said. “Helping
children discover themselves through art
has been an honor. There are no words to
tell you have much that means to me.”
Heather Wagner is no stranger to
trauma and loss. When she was a young
child, she survived an automobile crash
such a trauma.
A multimedia artist, Wagner
credits artists Grant Wood, Robert
Motherwell, and Georgia O’Keefe as
major influences on her work. For the
past ten years, Heather has maintained
a studio in the Cherry Building in Cedar
Rapids where she paints and operates
her business, Heather Wagner Designs.