Molly Swain, she/her/hers, swainvm@gmail.com
Using today’s privilege for tomorrow’s good
Molly Swain is an educator and artist in Boston, MA.
Molly Swain is in her ninth year as a faculty member at Milton Academy. Molly serves in many roles at Milton: the Director of Professional Learning; member of the Department of Equity, Inclusion and Justice; Visual Arts Teaching Faculty; Coach of the Varsity Girls Lacrosse team; member of the Teaching and Learning Team; Class Dean; Faculty Council member, and a mentor in the Penn Residency Masters in Teaching Program. As an educator, Molly is committed to responsive and inclusive teaching, bringing anti-racism to the forefront of her pedagogy and interrupting the white education canon that is so deeply rooted in her academic arenas. Molly holds a Masters of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University: Klingenstein Center in Independent School Leadership, a Masters in Teaching, and a BFA in Painting from Boston University.
As both a painter and sculptor, Molly uses the world around her as her subject by intentionally simplifying forms, editing down to the essence and gesture, and leaving essential structures. Molly is interested in the language and process of perception. She strives to draw the viewer’s attention to the power in everyday scenes and subjects. She uses a variety of media to achieve a sense of strength in her work to allow the materials to be at the forefront of what she is depicting. Molly uses texture, color, and line to emphasize meaning and exaggerate the subject. In her work, signs of construction remain visible so that the process is reflected in the final product, and the material itself is celebrated. It is her goal as an artist to observe and transcribe the world around her, such that the viewer will have a new relationship with the subject.
A Conversation About Teaching
“I am here to get it right, not to be right”
— Brené Brown.
Studio View, 2010