Voice: May 2017
Diane M. Lally, a suburban Pittsburgh art teacher, is the 2016 Pennsylvania Art Education Association’s Outstanding Middle Level Art Educator of the Year.
Lally, who has been teaching for 23 years, is a middle school art teacher in the South Fayette Township School District, Allegheny County.
She said she views her career as an art teacher as “a calling.”
“There is a quote from Confucius: ‘Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life,’” Lally said. “I am so pleased and honored to be selected for this award for doing something I enjoy so much.”
In honoring her, the association said she enriches student learning by collaborating with the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Andy Warhol Museum. Lally also participates in a professional development program and robotics training at Carnegie Mellon University that she has integrated into her art curriculum.
In addition, Lally actively supports, advocates for, and promotes visual arts education through ongoing learning and professional development opportunities, and by taking active leadership and service roles at the district, region, state, and national levels.
She has been an active member of the Arts Education Collaborative in Pittsburgh, where she designed and
developed “Imagination,” a framework for visual arts education. Lally also co-authored the curriculum guide, “21st Century Visual Arts Curriculum Project K-12.”
