Alumna receives national art educator award

Allison Petrauskas ’16 is the 2023 recipient of the New Professional Art Educator Award from the National Art Education Association, the leading professional membership organization for visual arts educators.

Petrauskas is the art teacher at Harold E. Winkler Middle School in Concord, North Carolina, where she teaches students in sixth to eighth grades. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art with a concentration in painting in 2016. After graduating, she returned to Charlotte to earn a graduate certificate in art education, and she obtained a teaching license in 2018.

“I studied under professors who were teaching while being working artists,” she said. “Here I learned techniques, processes, when to let go of control, when to harness it, and that you can make a career as an artist.”

In 2021, Petrauskas was named “Rookie Teacher of the Year” by the North Carolina Art Educators Association and subsequently submitted her portfolio for the national award.

“This award is being given to recognize excellence in professional accomplishment and service by a dedicated art educator,” said NAEA President James Haywood Rolling, Jr. “Allison Petrauskas exemplifies the highly qualified art educators active in education today: leaders, teachers, students, scholars, and advocates who give their best to their students and the profession.”

The New Professional Art Educator Award is determined through a peer review of nominations; it recognizes excellence and achievement by new art educators. The award will be presented during the NAEA 2023 national convention in San Antonio, Texas.