West Wing School art instructor Tricia Hilbert is the recipient of Artsonia’s 2024 Art Education Leadership Award. The award honors pioneers in the art education community who continuously inspire their peers and engage students.

Hilbert’s peers and Artsonia selected her among thousands of instructors as one of 15 national winners of this award.

“I am so honored to be one of the teachers awarded the Art Education Leadership Award. This is the last year of my career, as I will be retiring in May, so to end my career with this award is so special to me. I am absolutely thrilled,” Hilbert said.

Hilbert is in her 30th year as an art instructor.

“My inspiration to teach art comes from growing up in Tubac, Arizona, a small artist's community,” she said. “My summers were spent in the community center and the Tubac Center of the Arts learning different mediums from generous local artists who gave their time and talents to the children in my community, and those memories stuck with me.”

Hilbert is one of thousands of art teachers from over 100 countries around the world who use Artsonia to showcase their student art, crowdsource lesson plans, and help fundraise for their classrooms. Artsonia, an online student art museum with more than 100 million pieces of art, allows family and friends of student artists to create and purchase organic keepsakes from the student art and then give back 20% of all revenue to the local art classroom.

“I have been uploading work on Artsonia since 2006, and I believe Artsonia has really helped me build a relationship with our families because unlike a one-time art show, Artsonia portfolios can be seen anytime, any place by everyone and never go away,” Hilbert said.

Artsonia’s 2024 Art Education Leadership Award serves as a way to honor the passionate, dedicated instructors who teach their students to create and value art, produce innovative lessons, and continually motivate their peers on Artsonia.

“Artsonia strives to provide art educators a platform to inspire one another,” said Jim Meyers, CEO and co-founder of the company. “We could not thrive without the commitment and ingenuity of teachers like Tricia who use their online gallery and lesson plans to motivate others. This Art Education Leadership Award is a way for us to recognize the hard-working, passionate people who help our children cherish art and cultivate their creative side.”

For more information, visit artsonia.com.

View West Wing School’s online gallery, https://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=106577.