The National Art Education Association tapped Stacy Fuller ’04 MA as the Western Region Museum Art Educator of the Year. Fuller is director of education at Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth. She received the award at NAEA’s  national convention in Seattle.

“I must admit that I was thrilled,” Fuller says of the award, which she received in March. “The national recognition for the Amon Carter’s Education Department and all of the hard work that we do to connect people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to our collection of American art reinforces the importance of these efforts.”

Exclusively for visual arts educators, NAEA was founded in 1947. Its Western Region includes Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

“In national museum circles, it is often the largest museums like the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago that are the best known,” Fuller adds. “This award places the Amon Carter among these important museum leaders and recognizes the entire museum staff, board of trustees and our audiences who support our education initiatives and make them successful.”

Fuller joined the museum in 2004. She oversees a wide assortment of education programs, including school tours, public programs, educator trainings, Teaching Resource Center initiatives, visitor services and studies and distance learning broadcasts.

“My personal passions in museum education include developing accessible programs and resources that ensure all people feel welcome and wanted inside our museum and finding meaningful ways to engage various communities with our collection, exhibitions and programs,” she notes.

Fuller is focused on “learning to truly listen” to current and future museum audiences and finding ways to incorporate their feedback into programs.

“We’ve had great successes using visitor feedback to shape audio tours and educator programs, among other initiatives, and I want to expand this to hear from those communities who currently don’t visit the Amon Carter,” she says.

“We’re also working toward increasing interactive technological methods that visitors both at the museum and around the world can use to connect with our collection, which is increasingly important as our society becomes more and more engaged with technology.”