Kate attended CCES from Primer through ninth grade.
“During my time at CCES, my parents, Linda and Earle Furman, encouraged me to take as many art classes as I could,” Kate said.
She remembers learning about art in Ms. Kathy Wood’s art class in Lower School, where Kate painted a bumblebee that’s now in a frame in her parents’ house today.
Kate says middle school art teacher, Alice Ballard, is the most influential teacher she’s ever had. Kate first got to know “Mrs. Munn,” as she was back then, in an after-school ceramics class. Students practiced ceramics by making teapots.
“My teapot was modeled after my Great Dane, which Alice let us bring into class for some in-person rendering,” Kate said. “Alice’s patience, nurturing and attention to detail impacted me for life.”
Kate later took Mrs. Munn’s art class -- her favorite class at Christ Church -- where she learned how to respond to materials and subjects in the class, a vital skill that she still uses today.
Kate recalls learning an important lesson from Mrs. Munn when she was carving a block of clay to make her self-portrait bust.
“I have crazy curly hair, so mimicking it was proving difficult,” Kate said. “Alice showed me how to push my fingers into the clay to create ridges that eventually turned into my curls. It was a simple moment, but one that I still remember.”