“The joy is in the work,” said Detroit-based artist Rashaun Rucker.

On Sunday, Feb. 16, Rucker will receive the Alain Locke Recognition Award at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), alongside fellow artist (and Michigan native) Titus Kaphar, who will receive the Alain Locke International Award.

“It’s funny,” Rucker said. “I had this award on a vision board 17 years ago. When I moved here, it was one of the things I wanted to accomplish. And I saw people I knew getting it, like Hugh Grannum and Tylonn Sawyer — friends and family and peers. It was something I always had on my bucket list.

“I got a little emotional when I found out because it’s like a career award. You win the Alain Locke because of sustained excellence in art in our area; you don’t normally see people get it who haven’t been at it for a long time. This feels like validation of my sustained discipline.”

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Along with his art practice, Rucker, a former Detroit Free Press photographer, now teaches art to grades kindergarten through eight at Charles Wright Academy of Arts and Science. It is this work he says that has been the most rewarding for him.

“I never thought about any of the big things, getting work in the Smithsonian and other museums,” he said. “I never thought about winning an Emmy at the Freep. All I ever wanted to do was be a middle school art teacher. My middle school art teacher in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Kathy Williams, was the first person that made me believe I could be an artist, and told my parents I could be an artist. She would stay after school with me and work with me all through middle school, and I grew wanting to be Kathy Williams for the next person.

“This is my first year working in a public school as an art teacher. After being in journalism for 20 years, and doing visiting lectures at colleges and different things, it’s kind of serendipity to get this award when I’m back to my original career goal from when I was a kid.”

He said finds he’s learning as much as the students are.

“Sometimes, you go to school and get a lot of education, and then you only follow those rules,” he said. “What’s great is the ability to break rules and create freedom. Kids have this artistic freedom that you eventually lose once you learn too many rules. Part of my education from them is being able to see that and find out for myself, because I can be very rigid in my own practice.

“Being a public schoolteacher, the kids look at you like a big brother. But you’re also a second parent, you are a social worker, you are a caterer, you are a party store. You’re everything. I had a big moment last week — it’s Black History Month, and the kids in the third grade dress up as somebody that had a profound effect on Black history. One of the students wants to be me. That lets me know I’m making a difference, I’m hitting that mark that I need to hit with these kids.”

Rucker said students run up in the halls and excitedly show him sketchbooks full of work they’ve created at home.

“And now,” he said, “when I’m on lunch duty, I see kids drawing in the cafeteria and I know I’m having an impact.”

He said his biggest surprise in this role has been how much children need.

“How much more love is needed,” he said, “how much more exposure, how much more education is needed. I don’t think you can understand that unless you’ve been a teacher. Even if you give 100%, our kids need so much more. Sometimes, I’ll go home and I’m exhausted, but my parents are both teachers. If you give 100% to this job and you care about it, it’s going to exhaust you, but you know you’re doing the right thing, and I can say that about all the teachers I work with in this building.”

Last year’s Alain Locke Recognition Award recipients were David and Linda Whitaker, art collectors, philanthropists, and major guiding forces in Detroit’s art community. Linda also spent her career in education, including many years as a principal in Detroit.

“We have breakfast in the same place a couple times a week,” Rucker said. “On the weekend, I’ll go there and we see each other. Linda and I talk about education, and she told me something last week that really touched me. She said, ‘You can’t be a good teacher and be afraid to lose your job. You’ve got to be a fearless educator.’ ”

Linda has great admiration for Rucker and his career work.

“Rashaun Rucker’s photography, drawings, and printmaking capture the spirit of African-American life,” she told the Free Press in a written statement. “He connects with us by creating artwork that exhibits our spirituality, sense of community, and social commentary. His works stimulate our thought processes because (they) can make you feel at home with a sense of belonging or make you take a stand for justice and equality. His works scream, ‘I care.’

“Rucker also utilizes his talents to support and interact with the artistic educational process of our youth and young adults. He is a multifaceted star.”

Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti echoed the commendation of Rucker’s educational work.

“We are immensely proud to have Mr. Rucker as part of our DPSCD team, where he inspires and educates our visual arts students at Charles H. Wright,” said Vitti. “In a remarkably short period, Mr. Rucker has captivated students with the essential elements and principles of visual art, offering them fresh perspectives on the world around them. We celebrate Mr. Rucker’s lifelong dedication to the arts and his well-deserved recognition with the Alain Locke Award.

“The Alain Locke Recognition Award celebrates local artists and contributors. The award highlights the transformative power of art and its role in enriching cultural heritage and community life. Mr. Rucker’s contributions are a testament to the transformative power of education and the arts.”

Rucker is represented in metro Detroit by Ferndale gallery M Contemporary Art. Owner Mellanie Chard spoke of him as an inspiration.

“What I find so inspiring about Rashaun,” she said, “is his ability to convey artistic intent regardless of the material he is using. I’ve seen him make incredible work with just colored pencils. But whether he is drawing, printmaking, painting or reinterpreting a familiar object, you know it’s him. You can tell it’s his work. To me, that is what makes a true artist. It doesn’t matter what medium he is working in, the intention is always clear.”

Rochelle Riley, the city of Detroit’s director of arts and culture, had high praise for both Rucker and Kaphar.

“The entire city should be proud of what the Friends of African and African American Art at the DIA are doing, recognizing brilliance because it is necessary and it is right,” she said. “That this year’s honors are going to MacArthur genius Titus Kaphar and Detroit genius Rashaun Rucker — who are both known, as the Friends noted, for ‘dismantling classical structures’ — is vitally important.

“I’ve known Rashaun for a quarter-century and marveled at his pivot from news photographer and editor to renowned artist whose work is in the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the ‘Blacksonian.’ The Locke Awards ceremony is a moment that should make all Detroiters, all Michiganders stand and cheer.”

Rucker’s latest solo show, “Patron Saints of a Black Boy,” recently left the University of Texas at Austin and is headed to the University of North Carolina Charlotte this spring. It has been four years since his last big solo show in Detroit; he hopes to deliver another in the region next year.

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“I think all of this is a testament to just staying with it,” Rucker said of his career achievements. “One of my eighth graders was just telling me about what they couldn’t draw something, and I said, ‘Don’t start with the excuses. Excuses are the tools of the incompetent. Don’t specialize in excuses. They’ll lead you nowhere. A lot of people I graduated college with are not working in this field, and when they see me, they always tell me, ‘Man, you made it and I didn’t!’ The only difference between me and them is I never stopped making art.

“When I worked at the Freep, I was always making art. I never stopped. I tell my students, ‘The thing between you and your dreams is work. And you can’t skip the work.’ I think between social media and influencers, young people think that you can skip the work now. The work is always gonna be the work. I told him, ‘You can fail, just fail forward. And if you have to start over, at the end of the day, it’s just a piece of paper.’ Everything in life is like that: You do the work to get better. I smile when I see kids who cross some kind of barrier they reached with an art project. It makes me happy that they figured it out.”

“The joy,” he said, “is in the work.”

He said finding his calling as a public school teacher has reinvigorated him.

“As an artist, you breathe life into something,” he said. “What I like about my job is watching students breathe life into their pieces every day when I come in here. And just like they do with their pieces, I have to breathe life into them. Belief, confidence — that’s a strong thing to give somebody.

“I wish everybody gave others confidence. The world would be a better place.”

The 32nd annual Alain Locke Awards will be held Sunday, Feb. 16, at the DIA, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit. Tickets are sold out.

Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.