Here is your chance to celebrate your outstanding colleagues and nominate them for the 2024 MAEA Art Educator Awards. The submission deadline is June 30, 2023.

Don’t forget you can also toot your own horn and ask your administration to nominate you for an award!

There are over 15 different MAEA Awards – Click here for more information and to submit a nomination.

THE GOOD NEIGHBOR AWARD
The Arts|Learning Good Neighbor Award is awarded to organizations or individuals who have gone out of their way to offer logistical, technical, moral, or financial support for arts education to thrive in their community.

As Executive director of MASSCreative, Emily Ruddock brings 15 years of experience in strategic and management positions for non-profit arts organizations. Before joining MASSCreative in 2017, Ms. Ruddock was the first director of the City of Lynn’s Downtown Cultural District, and the artistic producer at Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT)

As director of Lynn’s Downtown Cultural District, Ms. Ruddock was highly regarded by city officials and local arts leaders for her leadership in coordinating arts and cultural organizations for neighborhood revitalization and economic development. Ms.Ruddock worked with elected city and state officials on a range of projects to promote downtown Lynn and the arts community, including drafting legislation establishing the city’s first Public Art Commission. She also organized and executed free public events featuring local arts and community groups.

Ms. Ruddock is a proud member of the Mass Nonprofit Network’s Board of Directors. She is a potter who loves making original ceramic art and functional ware for her home, her family and her friends. She holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Critical Social Thought from Mount Holyoke College.

We honor Emily Ruddock for her work advocating for a “Commonwealth of Massachusetts where arts, culture, and creativity are an expected, well-funded and valued part of everyday life, recognized for their significant impact on building civic engagement and economically vibrant, equitable communities.”

KATHY TOSOLINI EXCELLENCE IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
The Arts|Learning  Excellence in School Administration award honors a school administrator for exemplary support for, and commitment to high-quality arts education programs, leadership in promoting arts education and building community support. The recipient is an active advocate for the arts and shows outstanding leadership and rapport with students, teachers, parents, and the community.

Julie Jaron is the Director of Visual and Performing Arts for the Springfield Public Schools. For over thirty-five years Ms. Jaron has dedicated herself to a full spectrum of music and arts programming that supports and promotes the academic achievements of students Pre-K – 12.

The Arts Learning Irene Buck Service to Arts Education award honors an individual for distinguished and prolonged service as an advocate for arts education. The recipient exemplifies commitment and service to, and support of the arts, and arts-education communities. It was named to honor Irene Buck, President of the Massachusetts Alliance for Arts Education for many years, who was the first recipient in 1998.

This year’s recipient is Lisa Donovan. Lisa is a professor in the Fine and Performing Arts Department at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) in North Adams, Massachusetts. Previously she was an associate professor of Education and the director of the Creative Arts in Learning Division at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Lisa has been a passionate advocate for arts education her entire career. As Director of the Creative Compact for Collective Impact (C4) project to create a blueprint for arts education for Berkshire County, and co-director of the Berkshire Regional Arts Integration Network (BRAINworks), funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement, she has worked to increase access to the arts for Berkshire students making a positive impact across the County.

Lisa has broad experience working as an arts educator and administrator in a variety of organizations including Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Berkshire Opera Company, Barrington Stage Company, University of Massachusetts’ Department of Theater, Boston University’s Theater, Visual Arts and Tanglewood Institutes.

In addition, Lisa served as executive director of the Massachusetts Alliance for Arts Education and is the coeditor and author of a five-book series on arts integration published by Shell Education, Strategies to Integrate the Arts Series, and has published widely on arts integration and rural arts education.

Her research Leveraging Change: Increasing Access to Arts Education in Rural Areas (Donovan & Brown, 2017) was featured by the National Endowment for the Arts. Lisa was voted Best Professor in 2017 as part of the Berkshire Eagle’s Best of the Berkshires competition and was a finalist in the 2018 Berkshire Trendsetters Award for Creative Economy Standout.