This classroom is dedicated to Valorie Adams Sheehan, whose parents, William and Catherine Adams, were first-generation Americans who served in World War II and were the first of their extended families to graduate from university. They understood, and instilled in Valorie and her four siblings, the value of education and worked hard, sacrificed, and lived a modest life to extend the privilege of attending university to all their children.
Valorie graduated from Boston University in 1976 with a degree in education. Her first job as a tour director turned into a life-long wanderlust and deep intrigue about how people live, what they value, how they dress, worship, and play, and what they eat and create.
Val’s interest in what people create is connected to her decades-long interest in art, which began in 1989 when she enrolled in a ceramics class at a local art museum. Instantly enamored, she soon set up her own studio and took art classes at Providence College and Rhode Island School of Design. Over the years, she has dabbled in printmaking, glass and bronze casting, and painting, but her work with clay is what makes her the happiest.
In 2023, her love-of-clay resulted into a seven-year labor-of-love called, An Alphabet of Female Saints and other Tough Chicks: a 26-piece A to Z collection of female inspirations. Val had invested so much time and spirit in this body of work that she wanted it to have meaning beyond concept, object, and profit. Her travels to the Himalayas, the Andes, Kenya, Peru, and Thailand led Val to conclude that “the greatest poverty is when parents are unable to provide for their children, whether that be food, shelter, clothing, education, or medical attention.” That belief led Val to contribute 100% of the proceeds from the sell-out exhibit to Universal Promise and its mission to achieve and sustain equity via education.
When not creating art, Val finds herself cooking, baking, gardening, and surrounded by her husband, three children, and four grandchildren in a home that has become an extension of her art and a gathering place for loved ones.
Honoured by Universal Promise