When Libby Cagle was in the sixth grade, she was inspired by a redheaded art teacher who would always say, “you can learn the history of the world through art.”

It’s a saying Cagle has followed throughout her life, as she spent 36 years teaching primarily sixth grade gifted arts at the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District. And since retirement, she has learned even more through art, becoming the latest artist featured in the Starkville Area Arts Council’s Art in Public Places series.

“Sometimes it’s just therapeutic,” Cagle said. “I go down in my sunroom, which is my studio, and put on some music and get the paints out. And sometimes I like it. Sometimes I don’t, and I can paint over it and add to it.”

Cagle first moved from her hometown of Tupelo to Starkville in 1976 to attend Mississippi State University. She got her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in special education.

By 1980, she started teaching in the Oktibbeha County school district, which eventually combined with the city’s school district to become SOCSD. For the first seven years, she taught special education students, before she went back to school and got her certification to teach gifted students.

“I just felt like I needed a change and something exciting, and a way for me not only to inspire students to use their creativity, but also a way for me – I felt like I was constantly learning while I was teaching,” Cagle said. “That’s one thing I really enjoy, is being a lifelong learner.”

By 1988, Cagle was over the Verbal Innovations in Visual Arts program at Henderson Ward Stewart, a program for gifted students that focused on creative writing, drama and the visual arts. In that class, she said, she would teach her students about different artistic styles and movements throughout history, and then set them loose to create their own artwork.

While the VIVA program’s funding was eventually cut and the program no longer included writing, Cagle kept teaching drama and art at the same time for another three or four years, often with her students overlapping between projects.

“One thing that teaching taught me is that you have to be flexible,” Cagle said.

At the same time, Cagle was balancing motherhood with her teaching, as she had two children in 1985 and 1989 – each of which came through her classroom when they were old enough. Most of her artwork at the time, Cagle said, was for her students, as she would prepare sample pieces to give them a general idea of what they should be working toward.

In the mid-1990s, Cagle said, she served on the founding board of the Starkville Area Arts Council, as the organization started its mission of promoting art in the community. She later served on several committees for the council, including the educational grants committee and the student competition committee for the Cotton District Arts Festival.

By the early 2000s, Cagle officially received her art education certification. She taught primarily sixth grade, though that eventually changed to fourth and fifth grades for the last six or eight years of her career. Teaching art, Cagle said, taught her to be resourceful.

“You don’t always have the funds to provide the materials that you’d like to use in class,” Cagle said. “And sometimes, you want to do a project the next week but, of course, you have to put in a purchase order and you have to get approval to get the supplies. You often find yourself running to Walmart after school and picking up things on your own.”

Just like the teacher who encouraged her artistic interests, Cagle said she often tried to set up field trips for her students to go see works of art at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson, along with setting up shows for her students’ artwork around town.

Cagle retired from teaching in 2016. But retirement acted as just another beginning, as she started investing in her own artwork.

“When I retired, I really got interested in developing my style,” Cagle said.

As a lifelong learner, Cagle started experimenting with different styles and artistic techniques, eventually finding herself primarily creating abstract acrylic paintings playing with colors and shapes. She experiments with different tools and techniques, and she recently started working on representational abstract paintings, she said, painting abstract versions of things she sees in the real world.

Cagle said she has also used her retirement to explore art in other ways, as she has gotten to travel to see art exhibits in other places that inspire her. She and her partner Paul Buckley have also started attending more and more live music events, allowing Cagle to “see every kind of art I can see.”

Cagle also recently started showing her own work in local exhibitions, including in the SAAC’s latest solo show. SAAC held a reception for Cagle Saturday, and her works will be on display at the SAAC office at 109 W. Main St. through March 4.

SAAC Interim Executive Director Juliette Reid called Cagle an “asset to the arts community.”

“We’re so lucky to have her,” Reid said in a text message to The Dispatch. “Through her teaching career and post-retirement career, she’s been able to touch the lives of so many and inspire them to be creative. Art doesn’t have an age limit or required skill level. Art is for all, and I think Libby really encapsulates that.”