Kathleen Frye Recognized with 2022 Pacific Region Higher Education Art Educator Award

PHOTO BY ROBERT BRENT

Kathleen Frye

Recognized with 2022 Pacific Region Higher Education Art Educator Award

The University of Wyoming stands out as having some of the best faculty in the nation. The instructors, professors and lecturers of UW are no strangers to being recognized for their achievements. One of the many to be acknowledged over the last year is Kathleen Frye, an assistant professor in art education. Recently, the National Art Education Association (NAEA) selected Frye to receive the 2022 Pacific Region Higher Education art Educator Award. The NAEA was founded in 1947 and is the leading professional membership organization exclusively for visual arts educators. NAEA President James Haywood Rolling Jr. spoke about bestowing this distinction upon Frye, saying, “This award is being given to recognize excellence in professional accomplishment and service by a dedicated art educator. Kathleen Frye exemplifies the highly qualified art educators active in education today: leaders, teachers, students, scholars, and advocates who give their best to their students and the profession.”

Frye was hired at UW in 2018 as an assistant professor and coordinator of the Art Education Program. She previously worked at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, as a lecturer and program coordinator, where she also developed community-based art initiatives and founded summer art programs for K-12 students. Frye has worked in a myriad of other settings, and with students of all ages, in places including Colorado, New York City, and Bali, Indonesia. This wealth of experience led to Frye being hired by UW to spearhead the development and implementation of a new Art Education Program in the Department of Visual and Literary Arts.

Since enrolling its first cohort of students in the fall of 2019, the Art Education Program has grown to include over 50 art education majors. The program produces high quality art teachers who are consistently hired immediately upon graduation. To what does Frye attribute this success? First, the program is based on a progressive, well-rounded art education curriculum that includes active, experiential learning experiences, opportunities for integrating the arts with other disciplines across campus, visiting artists and guest lecturers, and hands on teaching experiences through Practicums and community-service teaching.

Equally important, Frye believes that educating art teachers in Wyoming is a statewide endeavor. It involves the community of K-12 art teachers throughout the state who mentor student teachers, the higher education faculty at UW and our community colleges who train them in art history and studio art, and education programs in museums around the state who guide our students in ways to teach art with objects and images. This entire “village” of Wyoming art educators prepares our students for fulfilling and extremely relevant careers in art education. In turn, our graduates go back into the community to teach art and inspire young artists to pursue the arts—and the cycle begins again.

Underlying Frye’s approach to developing the art education program is a teaching philosophy that is based on “the notion that teaching and learning in the arts are collaborative, student-centered and are inquiry-based processes.” Frye believes that “my role is to serve as a guide and facilitator for these processes. Collaboration is fundamental to creating a successful learning cohort of students, faculty and community mentors who come together to create an environment that fosters mutual respect, open-mindedness, and risk-taking.” Further, she remarks that “as an art teacher in K-12 and community settings, I’ve had the opportunity to share my love of arts with groups of individuals. In my position as a professor, I educate art teachers who will engage hundreds of young students with a love of the arts far into the future. I am proud to be part of the process that inspires the future art teachers of our state, in our region, and beyond.”

This philosophy and her hard work are driving forces in Frye’s success, and ultimately what makes her an instructor deserving of honors like the Pacific Region Higher Education Art Educator Award. It’s an honor that Frye doesn’t take for granted.

“I am extremely honored to receive the National Art Education Association (NAEA) 2022 Pacific Region Higher Education Art Educator award. It affirms my choice of career that has involved a commitment to learn about, make, and teach the visual arts in a wide range of settings with diverse groups of people across the country and abroad. I’ve made this choice as a matter of personal commitment to the arts but also with the desire to share with others what I believe to be the transformative power of the visual arts.”