NORTH ADAMS -- Drury High School art teacher Kyle Strack knows what brings out the creative spark in his students.

"When students are working on a project they have always wanted to do, but haven't done before, whether that be a new type of technique or a new medium," Strack said, "I can see the excitement. I can see it when I say, 'We're going to make these clay sculptures,' and they start to understand, 'Oh, this is how we can put things together, this is how we can sculpt to make what really interests us.'"

The Pittsfield native is the recipient of the Distinguished Arts Educator Advocate Award for Visual Art from Arts|Learning, a nonprofit that works to advance arts education in Massachusetts.

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Strack was a teacher at the now-shuttered Greylock Elementary School for the past four years. After the closure, he moved to Drury, but not before a final showcase of student work that brought together 100 families. It was one of the last events at Greylock before it shut down.

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For the bulk of the year, students worked on specific projects. Younger students worked on what best highlighted their skills, in Strack's opinion, while older students voted on what they wanted to do. Almost every student had at least two works shown to the delight of their parents and guardians, marking their artistic progress.

Students made paintings, self-portraits, food and animal sculptures -- even paper mache doughnuts.

"I think a lot of families felt it was nice for them to come back to the school," Strack said, "see what the students were making, and reminisce if they went there, or had other children who went there."

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Nominated by his former principal, Anne-Mary Riello, Strack is also credited with cultivating a relationship with the Berkshire Museum.

Strack's work with the museum brought three of the its social studies and science-themed mobile units to school for grades two and five. The initiative introduced museum objects into the classroom and sparked art lessons based on the units.

The endeavor brought different art educators in to talk to students as well.

"The mobile units would be in the front lobby, students could look at them as they were walking in the hallway or going to lunch," Strack said. "It was nice to have other art educators come in, not only for me to learn new lessons, but also because the students got really engaged in having a new guest in the classroom, and they enjoyed the different projects they got to work on."

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Strack is an artist and designer in his own right, graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in ceramics in 2019. He recalls being inspired to make art by his teachers at Taconic High School: Mary Beth Eldridge and Michael Boroniec. They played a large part of Strack's decision to study ceramics at the RISD, he said.

Regarding his first experiences as an arts educator in Providence, R.I., Strack said, "that's where my passion of teaching others and helping others worry about art and creating started."

Nancy Moses, the executive director of Arts|Learning, wrote of Strack, "our A|L Awards Committee agrees with Anne-Mary that you must be an outstanding educator." Arts|Learning will honor Strack at its annual Champions of Arts Education Advocacy Awards on Oct. 26 at the Worcester Art Museum.

According to Leslie Appleget, the school district's arts and communications coordinator, Strack's "work shows the most sustained type of advocacy there can be: dedication to students, creating opportunities for their success, and being present to honor the commitments made to their learning."

For the upcoming year, Strack hopes to offer an array of ceramics options and possibly a full ceramics course. He aims to add to his current digital art curriculum and expand into graphic design, even product design using the 3D printers the school has available.

Strack takes pride in witnessing progress from his students, and seeing them make connections, "remember and call back to things they learned before, then putting that into practice as they get older." One of his aspirations for students is for them to be able to develop and share their own ideas and voice through their work.

"Art is about expressing yourself through every project, as well as learning skills and techniques," Strack said. "They're putting themselves out there in ways that they haven't before."