Larry Hurt is an art teacher at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis and was named the 1999 Indiana Teacher of the Year. Using his year away from the classroom to serve as Teacher in Residence/Teacher Ambassador in the Indiana Department of Education, Mr. Hurt is participating in a variety of projects in Program Development while speaking to education students and student teachers throughout the state about becoming and remaining a passionate teacher.

In Wayne Township, Mr. Hurt has been chosen by students 15 years in a row for the Senior’s Choice Awards. He was Ben Davis Teacher of the Year in 1991 and 1998, and Teacher of the Year of Wayne Township in 1998. He received the Prelude Awards/Kightlinger and Gray Outstanding Arts Educator Award in 1998, the Governor’s Art Award in 1999, and was one of three visual arts teachers honored by the Walt Disney Company’s American Teacher Awards in 1992.

At Ben Davis High School, Mr. Hurt is credited by colleagues with 25 years of innovative arts outreach programs. He co-founded the Special Arts Club, an outreach program that brings special needs students and art students together in a peer-tutoring environment. Mr. Hurt is also the Ben Davis school improvement chair, chairs the North Central Association and Performance-Based Accreditation committees, and has served on the district Strategic Planning Team.