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James Rees, pictured at the National Gallery of Art, was recently named the National Art Education Association Educator of the Year for his efforts at Provo High School.

Courtesy of James Rees

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James Rees, pictured in his classroom at Provo High School, was recently named the National Art Education Association Educator of the Year for his efforts in the Provo City School District.

Courtesy of James Rees

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James Rees has been teaching for almost 30 years, with experience in college and high school classrooms, and was recently named the National Art Education Association Educator of the Year.

The Provo native and graduate of Timpview High School started his journey in the arts after graduating from BYU and pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Arizona.

He started teaching as a graduate student in Arizona and coordinated a program that worked with and mentored high school students that were interested in the arts. This program ended up opening Rees’ eyes, helping him to consider a future as a high school teacher.

Originally looking to teach art in college, Rees said he found it interesting how a good foundation in high school can make for a stepping stone to higher education. He felt as if he could make a difference by supporting high school students and helping them find their own identity and voice through the arts.

Rees added that in his time at Timpview, he had some great art teachers who helped provide a space and place for him to explore his creativity and acquire some skills that he took with him to college.

“As a high school student, individuality is kind of important and the arts really supports that idea that you are unique and you’re different,” Rees said. “It felt like that was the place for me, somewhere that wanted me to be my own person and not conform. The arts really are about divergence, not in a weird way but in a way that there’s no one right answer to every question. There are multiple ways to do something correctly and the arts embraces that, so it really resonated with me.”

Through his time as an educator, Rees began to take on a more national role after becoming the president of the Utah Art Education Association. He said the national level is where a lot of work gets done to promote the arts and art education, which helped him connect with people at the national level.

He found that, at the national level, as he was able to connect with other good and smart educators, he became a better educator himself.

He then served on the President’s Council for Arts and Humanity under President Barack Obama and has been involved with other organizations devoted to supporting the arts. These organizations have pushed Rees to strive to learn, explore and research more related to the arts and learning.

For Rees, teaching the arts is similar to the approach he takes in his studio. He sees it as a place to explore ideas, take risks, learn from mistakes and make adjustments.

“I love that because students at the high school level are pretty open,” Rees said. “When they get to college they are a little less vulnerable and less likely to engage in risky decisions with their art. I like that high school students are a little more open to take chances and explore.”

It is crucial, according to Rees, that students have something to hang their hat on and something that gives them self-esteem. Many students find this through the arts, which help build an individual while also opening up a community of other artists to support them.

Through the work at Provo High School, students are also able to display art at a gallery in the Provo Towne Centre, a way students can engage with each other and the community.

“For some people, it may be sports, and that is how they connect to a community, get self-esteem and find their voice, so to speak,” Rees said. “For a lot of people, the arts have been shown to help people be resilient and feel less isolated, which I think is now more needed than ever.”

To recognize his work as an educator, Rees was recently named the 2020-21 NAEA Educator of the Year. This award encompasses more than 20,000 members of the association and teachers of all levels.

“There’s a lot of drudgeries associated with education,” Rees said. “There’s taking roll, there’s cleaning up and there are all of these rituals that you sometimes lose the big picture that what you are doing is changing lives and potentially making a difference for them in their future.”

He said it is most exciting that his peers from an organization that he values, think that what he does makes a difference. He finds it humbling to think his colleagues and the association value what he is doing.