Art Educators of the Year

2023

MAEA Maine Art Educator of the Year: Matt Johnson

Matt Johnson has been teaching at Westbrook High School for 11 years where he teaches courses in traditional and digital media along with photography and yearbook. He has been part of the MAEA for 13 years since he was a
student at USM. He has served on the board of the MAEA for 8 years and has been treasurer for almost 7. Matt has his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Southern Maine in Painting and Education with a minor in Asian Studies. He also has a certificate of advance study in Business of Craft Brewing from the University of Vermont. He prefers to work behind the scenes for school and MAEA events a like, but has presented several times during spring conferences, technology workshops and other events including a photography lecture in Archangel Russia. When he is not teaching or balancing books, you can find him building, brewing or getting into other mischief with his 7
year old daughter.

2023 MAEA Secondary Art Educator of the Year: Iva Damon

Located in Western Maine, Iva Damon is in her thirteenth year teaching high school visual arts. While at Leavitt Area High School, Iva thrives on teaching foundations courses, instructing in a mixture of traditional and nontraditional fine arts courses. Students are often exploring in and outside the classroom with a focus on student choice and place-based themes. Students are challenged to explore and connect with where they live and why place matters to them personally. Iva went to the University of Maine and earned her Masters in Art Education at Boston University, but has yet to end her continuing education; she has earned certificates in content literacy, gifted and talented, and is working towards one currently in educational leadership. Living in Western Maine, she enjoys coaching snowshoeing in the winter with Leavitt’s Special Olympics and spending summers puttering in her garden and exploring at the coast with her two children.

2023 MAEA Supervision Art Educator of the Year: Rachel Somerville

Rachel Somerville is a professor of art education and public school arts administrator. Rachel is a multi-disciplinary artist- a painter and composer/vocalist. Her work explores the intersection of art and healing. Rachel is continually inspired by art students. She writes- "My students have taught me to quiet the inner critic–to welcome the illusion of 'mistakes' as a necessary layer of learning that ultimately enhances the quality of the artifact." She admires the confidence, curiosity, and unwavering focus of children as they compose their stories and disappear into a world of imagining and play. Rachel received her BFA from Scripps College, her Master's degree in Art Education from Arizona State University, and her Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of California, Davis. Her doctoral work centered on research that bridges the divide among innovation, community, and education, studying makerspaces within formal education and examining teachers as early implementers of this movement and the academic conditions that foster creativity. In studying a subject that is fluid and open to interpretation, she believes students can be challenged to examine their own perspectives, to question ideas, and to successfully respond to the visual culture in which they live.