Art teacher Denise Johnson recognized for her service to the community through the Library

Above: Library Director Ryan Donovan presented Denise Johnson with the annual Peggy Tuttle Award for Library Service Distinction. (image cropped from contributed photo)

The Southborough Library announced this year’s recipient of the 6th Annual Peggy Tuttle Award for Library Service Distinction. The honor goes to Neary School’s art teacher and SCAC member Denise Johnson. 

Johnson is being recognized for her successful efforts to share student and alumni artwork with the community through the Library. The announcement explains:

In her role as an art educator, Denise helps to coordinate seasonal exhibits at the Southborough Library of student artwork in dedicated display case downstairs. Her revolving exhibits started in 2015. They have helped to bring students into the library to see their work on display.

She also serves as a member of the Southborough Cultural Arts Council. In her role on the SCAC, Denise helped to coordinate the “Beyond the Art Classroom” exhibit at the Southborough Library in May 2019. In both roles, she helped to successfully coordinate “Art in Bloom” at the Southborough Library in April 2018 where she worked with students from Neary, Trottier Middle School, and representatives from the Southborough Gardeners. Denise’s dedication to and love of art across all mediums has helped to transform the library space as an inventive and creative hub for the local Southborough community.

The Peggy Tuttle Award for Library Service Distinction is an annual award given out by the Southborough Library Director. It remembers Peggy Tuttle, a long-term and beloved staff member at the Southborough Library. During her 30+ years as a librarian, Peggy Tuttle always said that the people were the most important part of her job. Peggy played a huge part in establishing the welcoming attitude and creating the charm of the town’s library. Children’s Librarian, Kim Ivers, who knew Peggy Tuttle for the majority of her professional career, described Peggy Tuttle as “the embodiment of customer service.”

This award, generally given out at the Southborough Annual Town Meeting, was delayed this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are very happy to present this award this year in 2020 to Denise Johnson. We thank Denise for her many contributions to the Southborough Library over the years.

In honor of the announcement, I’m finally sharing photos of the Beyond the Classroom exhibit that I never got around to sharing last year.

I missed the May 30th 2019 reception but was able to photograph some of the art before the exhibit closed. Below are examples of the works by former Southborough art students and teachers, in a wide range of mediums. The first one is by the award winner herself. Click thumbnails for details on the artist:

You can also check out my photos from the Art in Bloom exhibit referenced above here.