Willem Molkenboer

Wilhelmus Bernardus Gerardus Molkenboer, known as Willem (8 June 1844, Leiden - 9 December 1915, Amsterdam) was a Dutch sculptor and art educator.

He obtained a teaching certificate in 1868, and found employment as an art teacher at the Hogere Burgerschool in Leeuwarden.

They had fourteen children; three who died as toddlers, two who became artists (Theo and Antoon [nl]), and one who became a designer (Phemia).

[1] As a result, in 1880 he and the painter, Jan Striening [nl], were assigned to study the methods of art education in Belgium.

In 1893, on the occasion of his twenty-fifth year as an art teacher, he was named an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau, by Queen Consort Emma.

The reforms eventually met with conservative opposition, and his supervisory role was reduced or eliminated at forty-seven schools.