Coordinator of educational programs at the Carlos Museum by day, Hornor also is an avid potter during the little free time she has available. Pottery is more than a mere hobby for Hornor, however. "The simplest aspect of why I love doing pottery is that I feel so much of my day is spent doing for other people and that pottery is something I do for myself," she said. "When I think about the fact that people have made pots out of clay for tens of thousands of years and that they are still making pots out of clay, there's something about it that connects me to that tradition, to the earth. And another part of it is the nature thing. There's something about that relationship with an element like mud that is very healthy."
Hornor sees the tradition of pottery from the past being carried into the future through her daughter. "She'll turn her bowl upside down and say, `No glaze on the bottom.' She's very interested in pottery," Hornor said. "That's important to me."
Other responsibilities include managing the museum's lunchtime programs, which include the Food for Thought and the Scholar's Bookshelf lecture series, as well as gallery talks and other events held in conjunction with specific museum exhibitions.
Perhaps the most daunting task that Hornor and her staff carry out is coordinating the museums tours of thousands of school children per year. The education department is responsible for a docent guild of more than 50 active members, who last year led 17,000 school children on tours of the museum.
As a former elementary school teacher at The Children's School in Midtown, Hornor has a passionate commitment to arts education. "I think the arts are part of any living culture," she said, "and not to value learning about that aspect of another civilization, or foster that aspect of our own civilization, would be tantamount to cutting off part of your body. Things work best when they're balanced. You balance math, science, art, sports, etc. to create well-rounded individuals."
"Elizabeth is very inventive and imaginative in her museum education work," said John Howett, professor of art history and one of Hornor's favorite faculty members during her undergraduate years. "She brings together the University community and the lay community at the museum, and in turn, at Emory. She does her job very well and with a wonderful spirit of cooperation."
Making art vital and real for children is one of Hornor's primary motivations, which is reflected in her department's programs. "We have a summer camp called Culture Camp where kids come for a week and study art and sport and the interrelationships between the two," she said. "The idea for the camp came from the realization that when most kids go away to summer camp, what they do mostly is sports. Sports are pervasive in our society, from soccer to Little League and everything in between. There is this perception that some people like art and some people like sports, and never the two shall come together. This was such a perfect opportunity to mesh these two things and get back to talking about the culture as a whole."
Although Hornor has completed all the course work for her master's in art history at Emory, she probably won't complete her degree "until my daughter gets a little older and my husband graduates."
Hornor's earliest memories of Emory stretch back to childhood. "When I was a Girl Scout, I set up my cookie stand in front of Cox Hall and I sold 144 cases of Girl Scout cookies," she recalled. "I always came to Emory to do my papers for school. I feel like I've been here all my life."
Even though Hornor's interest in art didn't fully develop until her undergraduate course work at Emory, she expects her daughter Kate will soon begin showing preliminary signs of artistic inclination. "She loves to draw, but all kids usually do," Hornor said. "I haven't taken her into the pottery studio with me yet, but I'll have her in there with the clay very soon. What's not to like? It's mud."
--Dan Treadaway