CFA Associate Dean recognized by the Utah Art Education Association
Kelby McIntyre-Martinez wears many professional hats (some, perhaps are literal, but mostly they’re metaphorical), all of them are in support of arts education. She is the Assistant Dean for Arts Education & Community Engagement for the University of Utah College of Fine Arts and she’s the Director of both the Master of Arts in Teaching – Fine Arts program and the Endowed Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program.
But she’s not just busy; she’s incredibly effective.
So, it’s no surprise that she was recently awarded the Utah Distinguished Service Outside the Profession Award by the Utah Art Education Association (UAEA). This award recognizes achievements and contributions in previous years by persons or organizations in or outside the field of art education. This award is open to any person or organization demonstrating significant support of visual arts education.
In her words, “Arts Educators foster life-long learning and curiosity and improve quality of life by transforming how we generate new knowledge that is more equitable and inclusive. Quality arts education provides profound learning experiences that allow young people to create, imagine, and discover their fullest potential.”
McIntyre-Martinez’s colleague and previous UAEA award recipient, Beth Krensky said in her nomination of McIntyre-Martinez:
In all of her work as an educator and administrator, she has exhibited a strong commitment to visual arts education. This is reflected in the many ways she has been involved as an arts program administrator and arts educator.
She has taught at the Hartland Partnership Center since 2008. The Harland Partnership Center is a comprehensive capacity-building project co-created by the University of Utah and residents that brings a set of resources together in collaboration with a rental complex for its 800 residents, 75% of whom are non-native English-speaking individuals that come from immigrant or refugee backgrounds. She teaches a year-round weekly theatre and dance education class with the youth in an effort to bring them together and foster their energy in creative projects that they write and perform as a community. She has also mentored many graduate and undergraduate University of Utah students as they have taught visual arts to youth at the center.
In addition to directing the MAT-Fine Arts Program at the University of Utah, she also teaches multiple classes for the graduate students in the program. Through this work she has helped develop and support a strong cohort of visual arts educators who teach across the state of Utah, and throughout the United States.
It is true that Kelby McIntyre Martinez has an impressively long list of ways he has supported the visual arts. It is not the sheer number of these activities that impress me, it is the way in which she lends integrity and professionalism to all that she does that I find truly noteworthy. She uses her many talents for the greater good of the arts across the state and is one of the key visual arts mentors for many. Thank you for considering this nomination.
McIntyre-Martinez was awarded on March 3, 2023. Join us in celebrating her incredible impact and the recognition it has garnered.