Thomas M. Alder, M.A.
Managing Partner
Thomas M. Alder was raised in Holladay, Utah and received a degree in business management from the University of Utah. He worked in the financial services arena for Chase Manhattan Bank as a vice president, and then accepted a position as vice president of Private Mortgage Banking for Zions Bank. Mr. Alder received his MA degree in Art History from the University of Utah in December, 2007, and thereafter retired from banking to become a partner in Williams Fine Art. Mr. Alder is a trustee of the Museum of Utah Art and History, a board member of the University of Utah College of Fine Art, Art Access, Salt Lake County Art Board, and authors a monthly column about early Utah artists for 15 Bytes, an online art magazine.
Mr. Alder's extensive knowledge gained during the past twenty five years of purchasing, selling, and collecting art, his graduate studies, and instructing in Utah art history qualifies him for artwork appraisals for insurance, estate, and collecting purposes. He accesses over twenty years of purchase and sales data retained by Williams Fine Art which also subscribes to numerous national art networks such as AskArt and Art Net.
Clayton R. Williams
Founder, Owner
After a 40 year career in engineering as an officer and then owner of Williams Equipment & Controls Co., Clayton made a major course change in his life. At the age of 60 years old, he announced to family and friends and co-workers that he was going to shift from engineering to oil painting. Even though he graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1953, he had been interested in painting all of his adult life, having taken drawing and painting classes from the likes of Alvin Gittins and Lee Deffrbach. The move from right brain to left brain was satisfying enough for him that he opened an art gallery, and named it Williams Fine Art.
Today, Clayton is the owner of Williams Fine Art and spends most the working day at the gallery. He has a studio which is ready for him to get back into oil painting when he finds time for it. His original paintings have been published by Sage Publications, and have been displayed in the Ensign Magazine. His paintings have been shown in the Utah Watercolor Show, Dixie College Invitational Art Show, Springville Salon, Deseret News Art Show and he has had a one-man show at the Pioneer Memorial Theatre.
He has served the University of Utah as chair of the College of Fine Arts Advisory Board, co-chair and co-director of the Utah Fine Arts Institute and received the Honorary Alumni Award by the College of Fine Arts in the year 2000, He also received , in that same year, the "U"'s Alumni Merit of Honor Award. He was an early supporter of the Lowell Bennion Community Service Center, was a member of the Development Review Committee, and was co-chair of the College of Fine Arts capital campaign executive committee.
His other community contributions include serving as president of the Salt Lake Rotary Club, twice as president of the Salt Lake Rotary Foundation, President of LDS Hospital's Amicus Club, board member of the hospital's Deseret Foundation, and has received the hospital's Hall of Honor Award and it's Gold Caduceus Award. He has been an Alta Club board member and has served on its Arts and Entertainment committee and its Library Forum committee.
Articles about his art and gallery career have appeared in Utah Painting and Sculpture, Artists of Utah and Architectural Digest Magazine.
For the last 21 years his gallery has shown the works of many contemporary artists, and has featured a great number of Utah's outstanding deceased artists, with many cultural events featuring these early Utah painters
Kim Cannon
Gallery Specialist
Kim Cannon was born and raised in Logan, Utah with a love for the arts. Her grandma, Lucille Cannon (watercolorist) inspired her at a very young age to start painting. At age 19 she taught a fine arts class in New York for teenagers for a summer and fell in love with the whole situation.
She then received her Associates of Science degree in art from Snow College and left to serve a mission for her church in Southern California teaching in Spanish. Upon returning home she worked as a graphic design intern in Hau'ula, Hawaii for five months and then moved back to Utah. At this time she connected up with Williams Fine Art and has been enjoying her place with them while attending the University of Utah in art therapy at the same time.
Kristen Crandall
Gallery Specialist
Kristen Crandall was raised in Kaysville, Utah among the artwork of LeConte Stewart and other notable Davis County artists. Studying art and history at Dixie State in Southern Utah introduced her to a love not only art history but for practicing studio art as well. Kristen had the great opportunity to teach some Art History and Basic Art Design lectures for many Southern Utah High School Students. Included in these lectures was a lecture combining the importance of Art in history with "Propaganda Art Posters: The Influence of Art on All Home Fronts of the First Two World Wars."
Kristen received a Bachelor's of Science Degree in American History with an Art Minor at Southern Utah University in 2008. This degree led her back to the Wasatch Front and Williams Fine Art where she has continued her learning and love of Utah art.
Maryanne Topham
Gallery Specialist
Jennifer Lee
Gallery Intern
Jen Lee was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Jen fell in love with art and history while studying abroad in Europe with Brigham Young University-Idaho’s Humanities Department in 2006. Since then, Jen has surrounded herself with art by working for the Brigham Young University Museum of Art, completing an internship at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., and graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Art History and Curatorial Studies from Brigham Young University in April 2010. She is excited to be interning with the Williams Fine Art Gallery where she can continue to discover and learn everything about Utah art and artists.