educational program
founding chair, visual arts department
New Mexico School for the Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2010-2016 (program continues today)
 
I founded the Visual Arts Department at New Mexico’s first, statewide, residential highschool for the arts. I was hired in the spring of 2010 and had four months to write a curriculum/course of study for a four-year, mastery-level, high school visual arts education. I also developed an admissions criteria and process. However, the “school” did not yet exist: there was no budget, no teachers, no facilities, no supplies, no furniture. As a department we had no policies or guidelines, no formal structure whatsoever. In June we got a building. In July, I was given permission to hire a part time sculpture teacher and a part-time ceramics/drawing teacher. BY August we were ready for students.
 
By the time I left in 2016, the school had won prestigious national awards and was profiled nationally by Edutopia. NMSA continues to grow and flourish.These achievements are the result of the efforts of many, many, many people including the founders of the school, of which I count myself a part.