{"id":23802,"date":"2023-05-31T12:02:28","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T17:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/?p=23802"},"modified":"2023-05-31T12:02:28","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T17:02:28","slug":"welcome-to-mpa-ursula-hargens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/2023\/05\/31\/welcome-to-mpa-ursula-hargens\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome To MPA, Ursula Hargens!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"What position will you be holding at MPA?<\/strong>
\nUpper School Ceramics Teacher<\/p>\n

From what school\/organization are you coming?<\/strong>
\nI have been an artist and educator for over twenty years, teaching at colleges, universities, and community art centers. I also led an advanced ceramic certificate program that I co-founded with Northern Clay Center in 2014.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your education and past experience.<\/strong>
\nI earned an MFA in ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and an MA in Art and Art Education from Columbia University Teachers College. I also spent a transformational year in Nova Scotia, studying with the renowned teacher Walter Ostrom. As a teaching artist, I divide my time between creating work for sales and commissions and teaching ceramics in a wide variety of settings. My artistic output is broad, and I make large-scale tile installations as well as wheel-thrown, functional pots for the kitchen.<\/p>\n

What did you find appealing about MPA?<\/strong>
\nMPA is unique in its visible commitment to the arts. I am excited to be stepping into Ms. Buck\u2019s clogs and inheriting such a strong and vibrant ceramics program. I also look forward to working alongside teachers who are deeply invested in building a positive community and focused on creating challenging and meaningful experiences for students.<\/p>\n

What lasting impact do you plan to have on MPA? <\/strong>
\nI want to help students strengthen their understanding of materials, experiment and take risks, gain confidence in the process of making, and see projects through to completion. I feel this is an essential part of a well-balanced education and is increasingly important in a digital world. This kind of creative problem-solving will serve students regardless of where they end up in their careers. I am also interested in building connections with other content areas. For example, ceramics naturally ties into chemistry, art history, material science, and literature, and I look forward to exploring some of these links in the classroom.<\/p>\n

What’s your big dream?<\/strong>
\nIn every aspect of my life\u2014whether teaching, making, or personal time\u2014I want to bring value to the community, work in collaboration with others, learn something new, and enjoy the process.<\/p>\n

What are you (and your family, if you so choose) passionate about?<\/strong>
\nMy family and I like spending time in the outdoors, hiking, canoeing, and Nordic skiing. I also love gardening and am often watering and moving plants in my yard!<\/p>\n

What’s a fun fact about you that our community would love to know?<\/strong>
\nI have been a vegetarian for 36 years. My baked tofu was a hotly traded commodity at school lunchtime for both of my kids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What position will you be holding at MPA? Upper School Ceramics Teacher From what school\/organization are you coming? I have been an artist and educator for over twenty years, teaching at colleges, universities, and community art centers. I also led an advanced ceramic certificate program that I co-founded with Northern Clay Center in 2014. Tell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":23804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,28,24,10,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-school","category-current-families","category-featured-posts","category-fine-arts","category-upper-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23805,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23802\/revisions\/23805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}