Honored teacher finds home in 'fine arts oasis'
May 16—URBANA — For Urbana Middle School visual-arts educator Rusty Clevenger, teaching art is teaching students to ask questions.
"We go by stuff so rapidly and we consume it, but it's not until you slow down and take a moment and start to break down what you see, and why is it there, where people dig a little bit deeper into the meaning of stuff or why stuff is the way it is," Clevenger said. "I think it's that moment that people start getting an understanding of each other."
Clevenger is the 2024 recipient of the Gene Amberg Excellence in Teaching Endowed Chair from the Champaign Urbana Schools Foundation.
The award, named for the former Urbana school district superintendent, is presented once every three years to a teacher who may be recommended by peers, administrators, parents and students.
It includes a monetary benefit for three consecutive years, which was a surprise to Clevenger when he officially received the award Wednesday — he has yet to decide what he'll do with the funds.
Clevenger is a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he remembers spending a lot of time trying to decide what exactly to do with his degree.
"I was always in education, but then in the art realm, sometimes they want you to decide whether you're doing art or education," he said.
The Art Institute allowed him to pursue both paths and figure it out along the way, but two different moments defined his decision.
The first came when he was student teaching, helping kindergartners learn different colors and kinds of lines.
One of the kids was able to identify some of the things Clevenger was teaching without him having to prompt them.
"It was that moment that something that you did taught them something, and it felt cool," Clevenger said.
The second moment was months later, when student teaching was over but Clevenger lived close enough to a school to see students heading to classes for the next semester.
"I was really missing it," he said. "Where I grew up, I had a lot of family and teachers who found different art things for me to do, whether it was a group of women who painted ceramics or someone who was doing oil painting, and I just had to work into whatever that was. I wanted to be that person who provided students opportunities to go further with art, if that's what they want to do."
Clevenger doesn't expect most of his students to become professional artists one day, but he hopes to give them all the experience to give it a serious try.
Graduating from college in 2008 left him job hunting in the middle of a recession, so he was applying to any place that might hire him. He said Urbana stood out, even on a quick visit.
Clevenger noticed signs promoting all kinds of art, including dance and drama.
Fifteen years and multiple jobs within the district later, he still feels that the district has provided him and students good opportunities to explore the arts.
"Urbana's this fine-arts oasis in the region, I feel like, and I never had anything similar to it where I grew up," Clevenger said. "I always encourage students and families and people in the community to get out of their comfort zone, go to a theater like the Station Theatre or go look at the public sculptures or just sit down when you can and paint or draw or go listen to a music performance."
