Pictured from left to right: Sandy Wood, Pennsylvania Art Education Association (PAEA) Board member and retired Boyertown Area School District art teacher; Jane Stahl, 2011 PAEA Outstanding Friend to Art Education award recipient; Jackie Thomas, PAEA Board member and fiber artist.
The Pennsylvania Art Education Association recently named Jane E. Stahl, Director of Community Relations at Studio B in Boyertown, PA, the PAEA 2011 Outstanding Friend to Art Education. The award was presented to Stahl at a special ceremony in Gettysburg on Friday, October 21, 2011.
“I am honored and humbled by the award – just happy to have found a role that allows me to participate in the visual arts,” Stahl says. “I am in deep appreciation and awe for the creativity and many skills artists possess and overwhelmingly grateful that as educators their work and gifts will inspire the many lives of young people and those they touch to enhance all of our lives.”
Stahl was nominated for the award by three of her peers: Sandy Wood, Linda Rohrbach-Austerberry, and Arline Christ.
Stahl has retired from a career of teaching English in the Boyertown area, but continues to be active in the community, working with Studio B, the Arts & Activities Alliance, and the Art Mobile.
Stahl’s impact on the community is visible in the more than 61 bears on display throughout the Boyertown area, designed and painted by local artists – a process she and her husband Paul began as “Bear Fever.” In 2006, she was given the Boyertown Citizen of the Year Award, and has continued her efforts to build community.
“I call her ‘Tornado Jane’ because if you get anywhere near her she swoops you up into a whirlwind and before you know it you have volunteered for one of her thousand projects involving the arts,” says Sandra Wood, a retired arts educator and artist.
“Jane Stahl is tireless,” adds local potter and Arts & Activities Alliance member Linda Rohrbach-Austerberry.
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