Brenda Seyer and Helen Towner Artworks at Crisp Museum

Local artists Brenda Seyer and Helen Towner have an art display at Rosemary Berkel and Harry L. Crisp II Museum through Sept. 25, 2026.

HELEN TOWNER

Helen Towner is a prolific artist who creates drawings and paintings predominantly but is also known for making jewelry and fiber pieces.

She exhibits at various art fairs and shows new works each month

as a member of the Visual Arts CO-OP at the

Arts Council of Southeast Missouri in Cape Girardeau.

Helen Towner was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. She has lived in Cape Girardeau, Missouri over 20 years. She worked for the Cape Central Public School District for 12 years as a teacher’s assistant and taught children art at Cottonwood Residential Treatment Center for six years.

Throughout her life, she has been influenced by the women in her family who were also artistic. She has been intrigued with art since the age of 4, when she received her first watercolor set from her maternal grandmother. She saw exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago quite frequently in her young years.

“Being in nature has been a profound influence in my young life. Every summer from the time I was a baby, my family spent 2-3 months in a cabin in northern Wisconsin, where I was able to explore and just be, by forests and lakes. I became a self-taught in the raising of butterflies and moths, especially the beloved and now endangered. Monarch butterfly. Having that kind of time in and around the woods gave me a gift of the love of nature. There have been days when I have thought that I should have gotten a degree in the natural sciences.” Towner shared.

“My first “class” in art was with a family friend who taught a figure drawing workshop once a week to 10 year old girls…I remember drawing lots of ovals to make the figures. She took 4 years of art in high school followed by other classes at DePauw University in Indiana including printmaking and pottery where I earned her B.A. in art and secondary education,” Towner states.

Her art-related work included poster design for college theater productions, teaching various art and craft classes, working at a craft retail store, a suburban park district, and the MacNider Art Museum in Mason City, Iowa where she operated an art jewelry business, which included a number of art store and museum consignments.

Since 2006, Towner has been attending the Wednesday drawing group at Cape Girardeau Arts Council on a regular basis, and in 2010, I became a member of the Visual Arts CO-OP. In 2022, I was awarded the prestigious Otto F. Dingledien Honor for contributing to the Cape Girardeau area art community.

BRENDA S. SEYER

Brenda Seyer earned her MA in Teaching in 1970 from Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, MO.

Seyer enjoys meeting with other artists, creating pieces weekly, and showing her new art monthly. Besides batik, her art interests include human figure drawing, plein air painting, and watercolor landscapes.

Her career as an art instructor includes Lindbergh High School in St. Louis, MO, Charleston High School in Charleston, MO and Shawnee Community College in Anna, Il. She had the privilege of forming the art program and designing the art room for Saxony Lutheran HS where she taught for 13 years.

Seyer leads art workshops for the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri. She has participated in the Art Academy of Cape Girardeau since 1986. She is active in a weekly figure drawing group, and is a charter member of the Visual Arts CO-OP that began in 2004.

She also offers private, small-group art lessons.

Seyer has been retired since 2013.

Seyer has received many art awards over the years including Best of Show in Batik and First Place in Watercolor. Her work is in many homes in Missouri, Virginia, Florida, Kansas, North Carolina, and in China

Questions: (573) 651-2260 Em: museum@semo.edu

Crisp Museum is located at 518 S. Fountain St., Cape Girardeau, MO inside the Cultural Arts Center at Southeast Missouri State University River Campus.