We will talk with teaching artist Rebecca Potts about why arts education is important to youth and what it was like to teach art during the Pandemic.

Rebecca Potts Aguirre is a teaching artist from Montana currently living in Los Angeles. Her work is inspired by the intersection between ecological concern and the female experience, especially that of motherhood and trauma, often using unconventional materials that connect to childhood and “women’s work.” She is represented by Stay Home Gallery for 2021. She is also a member of Spilt Milk Gallery and is listed in the curated directories All She Makes and Visionary Art Collective.

Her practice consists of 3 spheres: art-making, teaching, and community building. She has worked in art education for 15 years and founded and hosts Teaching Artist Podcast, highlighting artists who teach young people. She coordinates the Art Educator’s Lounge, a community support group for art educators, in collaboration with Victoria Fry. She also runs Play + Inspire Gallery in partnership with Maria Coit.
Rebecca earned her MFA in Visual Arts from Washington University in St. Louis and her BA in Studio Art & Geography from Middlebury College. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and in Europe and Australia at spaces including The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Zhou B. Art Center, New York Studio Gallery, Art Share L.A., and SoLA Contemporary. In 2010, her essay on art and climate change, “Creating a Fourth Culture,” was published in 20UNDER40: Re-Inventing the Arts and Arts Education for the 21st Century. Rebecca’s MFA Thesis in 2009 also addressed the role of art and artists in addressing climate change.

She has also worked as an arts administrator, community organizer, and school co-founder. She participated in the Artist Residency in Motherhood from 2015-2019, which was the time it took to fully resume her art practice after becoming a mother.