{"id":22778,"date":"2025-04-09T17:42:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T17:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kiva-montessori-teacher-wins-rare-artwork-from-renowned-artist-during-education-event\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:16:23","slug":"kiva-montessori-teacher-wins-rare-artwork-from-renowned-artist-during-education-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kiva-montessori-teacher-wins-rare-artwork-from-renowned-artist-during-education-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiva Montessori teacher wins rare artwork from renowned artist during education event"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"At
At the 2025 American Montessori Society Event in Denver, Kiva teacher Daniel Acosta was awarded two paintings from renowned American artist Erik Wahl. (Lurleen McCormick\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Accepting a Fear Factor challenge at the 2025 American Montessori Society Event in Denver could have led to a scary, or even disgusting challenge, but the very opposite happened to Cortez\u2019s Children\u2019s Kiva Montessori teacher Daniel Acosta.<\/p>\n

Instead of being dared to eat a bug smoothy or lie in a bed of snakes, Acosta was awarded two rare paintings from TED Talk speaker, author and American speed artist Erik Wahl.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it was fate,\u201d Acosta told The<\/em> Journal<\/em>. \u201cI believe it was life trying to choose me.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his time speaking to Montessori teachers at the event, Wahl speed-painted a painting of John Lennon while playing Lennon\u2019s song, \u201cImagine.\u201d By the end of the song, the painting was complete. After painting, Wahl proposed a Fear Factor-style challenge to the thousands of attending teachers, which Acosta accepted.<\/p>\n

\"Erik
Erik Wahl speed painting John Lennon. (Lurleen McCormick\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When he came on stage, what happened surprised Acosta and all of those in attendance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter he finished painting, he started talking about where his inspiration comes from, and the inspiration that comes from teachers,\u201d Acosta said. \u201cOut of the blue, he threw a ball into the audience and I caught the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Acosta was ushered to the stage after catching the ball, he was given an envelope with a challenge. Acosta had the option to accept the challenge or pass it off to someone else. Acosta decided to take the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I was going on stage, he said, \u2018Daniel, have you ever done a freestyle rap?\u2019\u201d Acosta said of Wahl\u2019s joke. \u201cI opened the envelope and it said that the painting of John Lennon is yours to keep.\u201d<\/p>\n

After receiving the painting, Wahl offered Acosta $100, saying he could either take the $100 or keep the painting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018No,\u2019\u201d Acosta said. \u201cWhen he asked me why, I said, \u2018The painting chose me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Daniel
Daniel Acosta accepted Erik Wahl\u2019s Fear Factor challenge and was awarded the John Lennon painting. (Lurleen McCormick\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Not only did Acosta receive the painting of Lennon, he was also gifted an additional painting, Wahl\u2019s take on the Mona Lisa.<\/p>\n

Acosta, who moved from Colombia to Cortez to teach at Kiva Montessori four years ago, was also the 2023 Colorado After schoolteacher award winner. Acosta teaches ELA and science.<\/p>\n

When asked about the most rewarding part of being an educator, Acosta shared his thoughts on patience and allowing students to follow their passions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a system that has taught me a lot about patience,\u201d Acosta said. \u201cBeing able to push my students but also follow their pace. And the second one \u2026 here at Kiva, we follow the standards to make sure that our students meet their needs, but we also make sure that we follow their passions, and that is a real-life oriented approach. Everything we do is something that could be meaningful for their life when they leave school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acosta thanked school leaders for allowing teachers to go to the Montessori event for \u201cthe best professional development that we can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaders at the Montessori also praised Acosta and the other teachers who took the time to attend the event, leading to Acosta being awarded the paintings.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir team\u2019s willingness to learn together during their vacation time was definitely celebrated with Wahl\u2019s generosity and Acosta\u2019s courage,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

paintings were created by artist Erik Wahl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[363,21,155,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts","tag-cortez","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77849,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22778\/revisions\/77849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22778"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}