It was so wonderful hearing about how much love goes into Kate Frazer Rego’s teaching and her care for her students. The focus on ways that the pandemic is creating opportunities is so helpful when it can be easy to focus on all the hardships and tragedies. Kate talked about taking this time to think about how we work best and what our voice is, both for ourselves and as a focus for students. She also talked about slowing down and how the loosening of this tight “rigor” as many schools increase the focus on social and emotional learning is really beneficial and hopefully sticks around.
I also loved hearing about her art practice and the way she moves between materials. The idea of a mind palace was so visual for me. She described her brain as a palace with so many rooms and hallways, all connected, but not linearly. I’m excited to see what’s next as she continues to create mythologies and worlds of her own.
Kate Frazer Rego is an artist and educator living in the South Coast. She attended the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth College of Visual and Performing Art, where she earned a BFA in Sculpture. She went on to earn her MFA from Boston University’s College of Fine Art. Kate has shown her work nationally and is currently in several private collections. She participated and performed in Art in Odd Places: BODY, an international performance art festival in NYC 2018. And was included in the Cambridge Art Association’s 2019 Emerging Artist Exhibition.
Kate has been a Visual Arts instructor at Alma del Mar Charter School, a public charter in New Bedford, Massachusetts for the past nine years. Her pedagogy focuses on process, building strong studio habits within her scholars, and art history through a lens of inclusion and social justice. When she’s not teaching middle school, she’s holed up in her studio with a cup of coffee.
Links:
- www.katefrazerrego.com
- @katefrazerrego (personal instagram)
- @ms.frazer_regos_world (classroom instagram)
- Kate at Musa Collective
- Kate’s interview on the Ahtcast podcast
- Book: Studio Thinking 2: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education by Lois Hetland, Ellen Winner, and Shirley Veenema
- Book: Studio Thinking From The Start: The K-8 Art Educator’s Handbook by Jillian Hogan, Lois Hetland, and Diane B. Jaquith
Artists:
[…] Our very own Ms. Frazer Rego, Middle School Visual Arts Teacher at Alma’s Ottiwell Campus, was interviewed for The Teaching Artist Podcast earlier this year. We hope you’ll take a listen and a look to learn more about Ms. Frazer Rego’s practice! Find the full podcast here! […]