Kathleen Smith

With the 2025/2026 school year underway, I am enjoying getting to know my 6th period WordPlay students for their last elective of the day. Ahhh, poems about cold, delicious plums are just the beginning of our delights with magic of words.

I'm also busy putting the last of the FALL semester After School Program offerings into our dynamic program this year! We are fully in the swing of things with the classes that began at the start of the year, yet new additions have popped up with Girls Who Code coming back, a new collaboration with film-makers at RadGeekery, and the ball will get rolling with our upper grade 'Math-letes' who will begin collaborative preparations for math competitions (like Math Counts) occurring later in the school year.

Please take a look and let me know if you have any questions or comments. And I always love to hear about new ideas and people who might have something incredible to offer our students!

Posts

New Faces, Spaces, and Fun ....

In our After School program this fall, we are excited to be bringing back several beloved programs, but with some new twists! GIRLS WHO CODE is coming back with our new GWC Facilitator, Lala Nagata-Brown. (And if you think you recognize that last name .... good catch!) Lala is our new 5th grade Math teacher, Mei Mei's sister and another SLArts alum who is currently a computer science major at the University of Utah in her third year.

We are also bringing back some film-making in our After School program this fall. We are excited to be partnering with RadGeekery Films for the first time, and look forward to a Term 3 collaboration this year as well. Check out some examples of student's work here: https://www.radgeekery.com/radgeekery-films

And finally, for the student 'Math-letes' among us .... look out for more details with our Math Counts Olympiad Team ramping up now. Exciting news to come on that front soon!

As always, I love to hear from parents with new ideas, suggested collaborations, and any feedback you would like to share. I can be reached at [email protected]. or by calling our school phone number, extension # 4.

I am enormously grateful to be able to work at the Salt Lake Arts Academy with the people I do.

Whether talking to parents about something their middle schooler was able to do in the After School program that got them excited to share at the dinner table, coming up with fun classes with other faculty for our robust After School Program or our Summer@SLArts camps & classes, I love working here. We are so fortunate to have such an engaged, enthusiastic group of people doing creative things and sharing with each other. What an incredible community we have!

Some things about me ----

I have worked in a variety of schools (for special populations, private/independent, public/charter, and public/district) for the last 25+ years, yet I've often held roles outside the norm in some way. I feel good about having created somewhat unique jobs for myself in some wonderful schools, including ours. Learning happens all day long, in and out of school, and throughout our lives, if we are open to it .... Being a life-long learner and artist is how I choose to live, and I hope the students I work with come to understand this joy for themselves as well.

I am an Artist who bends toward colorful, abstract work, with some sculpture or photography here and there. I enjoy writing immensely, (as much as reading beautiful writing), and while I've sold dozens of visual art pieces, I'm more reticent about getting my writing "out there". Working full time here at SLArts means my volume of art work has slowed considerably, but here and there I still have paintings going, and a working studio I get into (thought not nearly enough!) Maybe someday I'll get the writing out as well.

I love dream-work and have been part of a dream-group for almost 30 years. We explore each other's dreams (without a facilitator) in an agreed upon process. It is always a fascinating journey, no matter who brings the dream to a meeting. I'm interested in creating a talk around what we do and why it is valuable work together.

I love being outside .... especially at the beach, but also the Utah desert, mountains, or lakes when I can. The reason I moved to Utah was to "play in the mountains for a year or two" and that was over 30 years ago. Rock climbing and mountain biking have mostly been replaced by hiking with friends.

I grew up in Connecticut, lived in London and San Francisco, and love imagining living in many other places, though SLC is most definitely home. City living fits me well, and Salt Lake has surprises me all the time. Taking in many outdoor concerts in Ogden and Salt Lake has been a highlight of this past summer.

I have two sons, Andrew & Zachary Ferdon, both Salt Lake Arts Academy alum, who are now at the University of Utah. I'm immensely proud of who they are becoming, and I love hearing the sound of their laughter as often as I possibly can.

(updated September 2025)

Name: Kathleen Smith
Position: Program Director for SLARTS After School & SUMMER@SLArts Programs, elective teacher
Email: kathleen@slarts.org