Ole Miss Alumna Becomes Notable Artist in New England

Sarah Benham Spongberg, a University of Mississippi graduate, has become a noted photographer and artist in Massachusetts.
After graduating in 1963, Spongberg moved to New Orleans, where she taught school and met her husband, Andrew, at Tulane Medical School. They later moved to Massachusetts and raised a family. But before going to school at Ole Miss, Spongberg lived on a 1,000 acre farm in rural Mississippi near Monticello where her mother also painted. She always dreamed of going to Ole Miss, and after high school, she moved to Oxford.
“The most glamorous girl in the town where I grew up went to Ole Miss,” Spongberg said.
Her interest in art started at Ole Miss where she took her first formal painting class. She also did a little work for the Daily Mississippian, where the only dark room for developing photography was in the offices of the Daily Mississippian, too. While at Ole Miss, she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and knew a lot of people on campus, even HottyToddy.com’s publisher Ed Meek.
“There were about 5,000 people on campus,” Spongberg said. “Everyone kind of knew each other. It (Lafayette) was a dry county, there was not a like of drinking. Most people just go together and threw parties.”
She also remembers William Faulkner. Her friend owned a horse with Faulkner, and Faulkner and his wife would send over food to her friend, who was in Law School.
“We would walk into town,” Spongberg said, “and he (Faulkner) would come to town and stand and look.”
Faulkner is known to have used Lafayette County and Oxford in his books, and is still regarded as one of the best authors world-wide.
Upon graduating and marrying, Spongberg later started up an interest in art photography and directed a gallery at a small school near her home. Spongberg also had an interior design business for 25 years called Sarah Spongberg Interior Design, but she still had a passion for painting.

“I decided it was now or never,” Spongberg said. “I hired a tutor, and I work in the studio for eight hours.”
Recently, Spongberg’s work has been on display in an art gallery in Boston, and some of her photography is displayed in major museum collections and private collections throughout New England. She studied photography with John Loengard, Arnold Newman, Judy Dater, Eugene Richards, George Tice and Deborah Turbeville. She also studied painting withGeorge Dureau, David Loeffler Smith and John Borowicz.
Spongberg’s painting are large, figurative paintings with lots of color.
“Nature is a big teacher and color is exciting to me and always has been,” Spongberg said about her inspiration and color. “I see my pallet changing, as you work at something, you see it changing and you work harder.”
Spongberg paints under her maiden name, Sarah Benham, and works in her studio everyday. She currently lives with her husband in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts on a farm. They have one daughter and six grandchildren and are planning on having a big Christmas.
Emily Newton is a reporter for HottyToddy.com and can be reached at emily.newton@hottytoddy.com.