A Lilly fellow again

As a child, Kathy Ayers took her scissors to J.C. Penney catalogs, snipping outfits for her paper dolls.
It was a little girl’s hobby. But it has become a part of her career, and now will take her on another trip overseas.
Ayers, an art teacher at Jay County High School, was selected last week for her second Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Fellowship, a $12,000 grant for a trip to Denmark in June to study the paper arts and spend time painting.
“It’s renewal for the teacher, something that will personally get you excited and ready to come back in the classroom with these big ideas that you can use,” said Ayers, who was selected for a previous Lilly fellowship for a trip to Spain in 2005. “So (Lilly wants) you to do something that’s something you enjoy …”
The destination for her latest adventure was chosen with her love of both art and family in mind.
Over the years, Ayers has been a member of The Original Paper Doll Artists Guild and a contributor to its Paper Doll Studio magazine. Through that work she got in contact with fellow artists from Denmark, and they became pen pals.
Meanwhile, her future brother-in-law, a native of Denmark, has been asking for years for Ayers to join him for a trip back to his homeland where his family still lives.
“I thought, ‘Wow, maybe there’s a way to tie all this together,’” said Ayers, noting that having connections is helpful when applying for funding from Lilly. “I love to travel. I love my paper arts. And it all fell together.
“It’s fun to see what they have in different countries.”
As part of her experience in Denmark she’ll meet with her Danish friends and with their help learn more about paper-cuts, mobiles and paper dolls that are popular in the Scandinavian country. She’ll visit shops, businesses, museums and galleries that are known for their paper art offerings.
She’ll also make a trip to an area of northern Denmark known for the Skagen Painters, a group of artists who gathered there from the late 1870s through the early 1900s to paint its coastal scenery. She hopes to paint there herself, if she’s able to transport supplies and the resulting work overseas, or at the very least take photos for inspiration for future projects.
She plans to display some of those photos at Jay County Public Library and incorporate her new-found knowledge into a variety of projects for students.
Ayers has been an art teacher for Jay School Corporation for 21 years following stints at Delta and Hagerstown. She spent her first 20 years in Jay County in elementary schools before moving to the high school this year.
She was one of 100 chosen for a fellowship this year out of more than 500 who applied.
“It’s quite an honor,” said Jay Schools superintendent Tim Long. “Lilly does a great job being philanthropic in Indiana. … That’s a credit to her. She’s not only a great art teacher locally, she’s recognized by her peers as being a superior art teacher. … She’s a star for us.”