Billings Public Library
Billings, Montana
As the Billings Public Library Senior Outreach Librarian, I have had the pleasure of working with Bonny Beth Luhman since October 2022. Bonny Beth has been teaching two-hour monthly senior and adult art classes at the library. She has a passion for art and inspiring others to explore various mediums. Bonny Beth brings enthusiasm and creativity to every instructional session. She is also well-organized and fun to work with. Due to the amount of preparation Bonny Beth devotes to every class, she obviously cares deeply for her work and for helping others learn about art. Bonny Beth has also been very understanding of budget constraints and has been willing to loan some supplies to the library for classes.
In preparation for each class Bonny Beth teaches, she provides me with a list of supplies and a room configuration for table and chair setup. She takes pictures of each project and writes a newsletter description to help with advertising, which has contributed to the success of her classes.
As someone with an art background, I truly appreciate Bonny Beth’s skills and have told her on many occasions that her work at the library is the highlight of my month. I look forward to working with her and being a small part of each class.
During my sixteen-year career at Billings Public Library, I have coordinated many presentations and classes with a wide-variety of professionals from the community. Bonny Beth’s positive attitude and remarkable ability to adapt to different situations has made her an outstanding collaborative partner.
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-Jennifer Kruger
Senior Outreach Librarian
Miles City Public Library
Miles City, Montana
Bonny Beth is an incredible teacher! When I worked as a Youth Services Librarian, I worked with many different professionals to put on events for the kids that came to the library. Bonny Beth designed an entire event around a book that I picked out, I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont. Ms. BB created an incredible program where the kids painted their own portraits. She interacted with each participant on their own level, and she was able to help each child learn and have fun despite their different ages and skill levels. Bonny Beth was exceptionally prepared and had everything she needed to help the kids while preventing me from having a major mess to clean, and she was able to cheerfully deal with any variations that arose.
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Bonny Beth was wonderful with the kids, great at teaching, and very easy to work with. She met with me in person before the event to discuss details, and she even helped advertise by creating advertisement materials for me to distribute. She was respectful of the library’s time, and she provided support to help make the event a success. I highly recommend working with Bonny Beth because of her professionalism, kindness, teaching skill, adaptability, artistic skill, and her amazing ability to help kids of various interests and skills enjoy, learn about, and feel successful with art.
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-Cathleen Gustad
Youth Services Librarian