By Marilyn Delk
DCCA News
The Ohio Art Education Association recently granted awards to exemplary art educators and advocates throughout the state, and our community brought home three regional winners—and one of those regional winners not only earned the award for the Western Division but also was tops in Ohio! Ansonia Superintendent P.J. Burgett won the Distinguished Educator for Art Education award in the Western Division, and also was declared the winner for the entire state.
Recognizing that many students find their educational motivation in elective subjects such as visual arts and musical performance as well as athletics, Mr. Burgett implemented a brand new visual arts program for elementary and middle school students at Ansonia, working diligently to make sure that everything needed to create an effective comprehensive program was in place so that kindergarten through 8th grade students could participate in art for the first time during the 2023-24 school year. Mr. Burgett explained his exceptional work quite simply, saying “A well-rounded education has always been extremely important to me.” His work to bring this new visual arts program to Ansonia Local Schools has provided a creative outlet for students to not only express themselves, but also to learn valuable life skills through the arts.
Mississinawa Valley art teacher Ashley Austerman, whose many accomplishments have earned mention in this column several times in the past, is another of those award recipients. Ashley’s nominating document lauded the “many amazing things to promote the arts in her school and in our community” that Ashley has accomplished, including the fact that for the past three years she has received a TeachArts Ohio grant, allowing her to bring different guest artists into her classroom to help students complete quite impressive student-driven community projects. One of those projects, a stunning mural installed on a Union City aqueduct, was celebrated by the entire community with county and city officials and other dignitaries in attendance; the guest artist who collaborated with Ashley to complete that project was Timothy Wells, who was also honored with an award—but more about Tim later.
Ashley works to offer her students ample opportunity to explore and create from their own unique perspectives, guiding and supporting their efforts with her caring expertise. She believes that the youngsters are gaining leadership skills while developing their ideas and planning to bring those ideas to fruition. She not only develops innovative programs, but also manages to secure the funding required to purchase equipment necessary to bring her plans to fruition, equipment which will continue to benefit students for years to come.
And now to the afore-mentioned Timothy Wells, who won the Western Division Distinguished Citizen for Art Education award and has contributed his expertise to so many artistic projects in and around our community. Although Tim’s home address is in Michigan, he works with local leaders to help strengthen communities in our area through public art. He has been an essential component of Troy Main Street’s delightful “Sculpture on the Square” program, filling the city’s downtown with unique work created by sculptors from across the U.S. and beyond. He edits “Art Around Town Dayton,” an email newsletter providing information about the visual arts in and around Dayton. He worked with Darke County Center for the Arts and Darke County Park District to help develop the Darke County Art Trail and has been integral to the most recent installations on the trail. And he has also been quite involved with the installation of murals in Greenville, not only as a member of the Mural Committee but also as an artist producing images that can be transferred to walls or power boxes or whatever surface upon which the public art is displayed. Tim’s contribution to public art embellishes our surroundings in thoughtful and delightful ways, an achievement that he finds to be exciting and ultimately quite rewarding.
Darke County is blessed to have these hard-working, innovative award-winning individuals living and working among us; their artistic creativity will reverberate positively throughout our community for years yet to come.