Escuela Vieau’s art teacher, Laura Lofton, remembers how much art meant to her when she was growing up. That’s something she’s eager to pass along.

“I looked forward to art class every week. It’s easy, if you feel like you’re good at something,” Lofton said. “I try to make my kids all feel like they’re good at it.”

That’s typical of the qualities that earned Lofton the Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) Outstanding Educators Award this year. The museum chooses only two teachers from the entire state for the honor.

Besides teaching art, Lofton also leads the Girls on the Run chapter and coaches robotics. Lofton has been building our robotics program; she learned how to write grants and then pursued and won a grant for Vieau robotics last year from the state Department of Public Instruction.

Some students gravitate toward both art and robotics, just as Lofton does. “It’s that creative brain that’s the same,” Lofton said.

Art instruction has been shown to help students in numerous ways, such as improving memory, increasing engagement, and developing social-emotional learning.

“We get benefits from it whether we see ourselves as artists or not,” said Lofton, whose own interests in art span from sculpting to painting to visible mending.

During recent art classes with 7th and 8th graders, Lofton guided students as they prepared to draw posters for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. art contest, celebrated annually in January at the Marcus Performing Arts Center. This year, the theme is “What Are You Doing for Others?”

She told the students: Think about the abstract theme in terms of what you’ve learned about Dr. King and his message, or how it relates to your life, and how to express that. Think about what meaningful images you could you use, she said, and keep in mind what you’ve learned about drawing — color, lines, shapes, contrast, background, shading, unity, value, and more.

“You’re putting your own spin on it. What would you like to express?” she prompted them, before going to each student individually to talk about the poster.

“I have a lot of kids who really love art. What they’re into is so varied,” Lofton said. The students show her lovely drawings from their sketchbooks, and “they’re excited,” she said. Lofton has seen students who have difficulty in school find their niche in art and excel there.

Lofton accepted her Outstanding Educators Award from MOWA in August, attending the museum gala with Principal Marko Radmanović.

“An overwhelming amount of money was raised that evening for the sole purpose of enriching art education programs, and it was uplifting to be surrounded by so many supporters,” Lofton said.

“I feel the same sentiment working with many local community members/organizations. For example, when Arts @ Large” — just five blocks from Vieau — “invites our kids to walk over for a field trip, or Rockwell funds new robots for us, or MSOE and UWM send us mentors and student teachers,” she added.

A community partner, Rockwell Automation, contributed toward a new makerspace that’s under construction at Vieau and is due to open this winter. A significant portion of the funding came from federal pandemic-relief dollars. Located on the building’s lower level, the makerspace has natural light and room enough for the robotics team. Currently, students use a hallway for robotics.

The new space also will give Lofton a home base for art classes. She’s been teaching “art on the cart” for all her 11 years at Vieau, rolling supplies with her from room to room in the four-story building. Because the building has no elevator, Lofton has carts stationed on each floor. She has two carts when extra supplies are needed, such as clay for sculpting. Students can help themselves to what they need for class from the main cart: tempera paint from the middle shelf, say, or colored pencils from the lower shelf.

Lofton is looking forward to being in the new space, more so for the students than for herself — “just to have more stuff for kids to choose from,” she said.

Lofton tries to make art classes as enjoyable for her students as they were for her while growing up.

She varies the lessons. Besides drawing, students will try arts and crafts, building and sculpture, painting and collage. “I try to give them as many options as I can,” she said.

Her nomination for the MOWA Educators Award — by the head of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee art education programs — cited the high caliber of Lofton’s mentorship, leadership, and teaching, according to the museum. A committee of museum staff and board members reviewed all nominations.

“Lofton eagerly accepts student teachers every semester and values the opportunity to shape future educators and learn from them in turn. Her passion for providing an equitable, positive, and encouraging learning environment—for both her students and her mentees—exemplifies her dedication and makes her a true example of an outstanding Wisconsin art educator,” the museum wrote in their biography of her.

“I welcome the fresh ideas and feedback. I think it makes me stronger,” Lofton said. Her students also benefit from relating to another adult, she said.

And, of course, the experience helps the student teachers. “It’s really exciting to see that transformation from kind-of-overwhelmed to I can do this,” Lofton said. “They feel empowered to teach wherever they could be put.”