CHAMPAIGN — For Krannert Art Museum education coordinator Kamila Glowacki, her job is about more than just sharing information with museum guests.

It’s about exchanging ideas and working together to find meaning in a piece of art.

“I’m someone that uses the arts to help build connections between people and within themselves,” Glowacki said.

The Illinois Art Education Association has named Glowacki the 2023 Art Education Museum Educator of the Year for her work designing and leading tours and programs for all age groups.

She said finding those connections between people and art is like building a case with evidence from the artwork to discover why they are drawn to certain aspects of a piece.

So Glowacki is prepared for any interpretation, even when kids suggest that a work might just be about “Paw Patrol.”

“I’m like, ‘That’s great, what do you see that makes you say that?’” Glowacki said. “All interpretations are welcomed and valid, but we try to ground it in this visual evidence to give it some concrete meaning.”

Glowacki said that she has always been artistic — she can still remember lyrics from songs she wrote as a child — because it’s a way to process events and feelings.

Today, art touches every part of her life, from working as a museum educator to touring with her band, Nectar.

Nectar started off as Glowacki’s solo project, and she still uses it as an outlet for her songwriting, but it has grown into a full band with two studio albums, “Knocking at the Door” and “No Shadow.”

The band leans into the local punk and do-it-yourself music scene, which seems pretty different from the polished atmosphere of Glowacki’s day job.

Still, she says playing with the band has informed her work at the museum.

“It’s hard to keep things separate,” Glowacki said. “They’re all kind of in conversation.”

As a grad student in 2017, she looked for a way to bring those worlds together, and “Art Remastered” was born.

Glowacki invites local musicians to choose artwork on display in the museum and write music in response, then perform so the audience can hear their work while also viewing the piece in question.

“It really has a lot of different missions, one of which is to bring in audiences that maybe are not coming to museums or don’t feel comfortable with art and don’t know how to connect with it, but are people that connect with music,” Glowacki said.

The reverse is true, too; the “museum crowd” can get a taste of music genres that aren’t often associated with the “classical” art space.

The mixture of different cultures that all center around art was what got Glowacki excited about the whole idea.

“Art museums can be seen as very elitist and you can’t, you know, touch anything, so I was really curious about what would happen,” Glowacki said. “But it was really wonderful. There were a couple moments of tension where we were trying to find the balance of people’s comfort versus preserving the art, but overall, it’s been a very positive and well-received program.”

Another program Glowacki helped to start at Krannert Art Museum was “Rest Lab,” a reoccurring installation in the museum that just creates an area for people to take a break between all of the exhibits.

“Rest” in this case might be playing with some art supplies, reading a book or just hanging out on the couch with some peaceful wave videos, but the Rest Lab changes every time it’s put out.

Glowacki said she will make art with any medium she can find, from music to Plexiglas to comic books.

Some of her work has been inspired by themes of home and connecting to her Polish heritage, and she hopes that museums will become a palace that many different heritages can be represented.

“As a museum educator, I need to be advocating for the groups that are historically underserved by museums because those are coming out of a very White colonial history,” Glowacki said. “I feel really lucky that I get to help facilitate experiences and moments by making the arts as accessible to as many people as I can.”