Irma Lebing, 95, art teacher of young and adults

Irma Domke Lebing, 95, an artist who was a public-school art teacher in Elkins Park, died Wednesday, Aug. 15, of dementia at Brookside Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center in Roslyn.

Born in Fort Wayne, Ind., and raised in Philadelphia's Frankford section, Mrs. Lebing graduated from Frankford High School in 1935 and, with an art scholarship, from what is now the University of the Arts at Broad and Pine Streets in 1940. She earned a bachelor's degree in education at Temple University in 1941.

At the Broad and Pine Streets school, then known as the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts, she was named best student teacher, her daughter Wendy said.

Mrs. Lebing began as an art teacher, from 1955 to 1958, at Camden High School.

In 1961, she earned a master's of fine arts at Temple University's Tyler School of Art. From 1964 to 1980, she taught art and developed costumes and scenery for student plays at what was then Elkins Park Junior High School.

Mrs. Lebing taught evening classes for adult art students at the Fleisher Art Memorial, the Cheltenham Center for the Arts, and what is now the Markeim Art Center in Haddonfield.

She produced clay sculptures and paintings in oils, watercolor, and tempera, her daughter said.

In 1976, she organized the Woodmere Art Gallery exhibition of the Tyler School of Art Alumni Association.

Besides being exhibited at galleries in the Philadelphia region, her work was displayed in shows at the University of Delaware and the Trenton Art Museum, both in 1966.

She was also in a show at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City in 1968 and at the annual exhibit of the American Watercolor Society at the National Academy Museum and School in New York City in 1969.

Mrs. Lebing won best in show at the 1958 Camden Art Fair, first prize for an oil portrait at the 1960 Camden Art Fair, and first prize for sculpture at the 1967 Cheltenham Art Show, her daughter said.

She retired to Florida in 1980, moved to Virginia in 1996, and returned to the Philadelphia region in 2007.

In addition to her daughter Wendy, Mrs. Lebing is survived by sons Wytold and Gerald; a daughter, Theodora Demetriades; and four grandchildren. Her husband, William, died in 1983.

Services are to be private.