Sean Cain Celebrates NWA Milestone

Sean Cain, Northwest Academy’s visual arts teacher, is celebrating his 20th anniversary at the school. The two decades have not only allowed him the time to perfect his educational skills, but also the opportunity to watch the school change and grow.

“Getting to teach drawing and painting as basic disciplines was pretty special and there really were no conditions placed on how I taught those subjects,” Cain said. “Also, I liked that the school was still figuring things out. It made things seem dynamic.”

Cain was initially drawn to Northwest Academy because of its flexible curriculum. He used this curricular freedom to teach a wide range of subjects.

“I used to teach a lot of After Hours classes such as Figure Drawing/Painting, Screenprinting and Portfolio,” Cain said. “I added printmaking to the painting class because I thought that would help round out the course and make the subject more widely available.”

However, 20 years doing anything is a long time, so Cain changed up his classes to match student interest.

“We added an Advanced Art class several years ago for students who got tired of taking drawing and painting over and over and wanted to work on alternate projects and ideas,” Cain said. “Intermediate Art was added this year to bridge the gap between the practical disciplines and drawing and painting and the conceptually oriented Advanced Art. The idea was to do lots of hands-on stuff that didn’t neatly fit into the other classes, stained glass or mosaic or ceramics, for example, but distance learning has required the creation of a curriculum-on-the-fly.”

Cain notices many changes from the school 20 years ago, such as a larger student body and institutional growth.

“It’s more polished, certainly,” Cain said. “Lots of refinements that probably aren’t noticeable to students – clarity in policy and procedures. Of course, the student body is much larger. We once used only the Main Street campus, if you can believe it. We have more employees with more clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Institutionally, I believe we are far more knowledgeable about and responsive to student needs and well-being.”

As Cain’s life grew busier with an increased role at the school and having children, his own artwork has had to adapt to the new time constraints.

“With kids and a full-time teaching schedule, it’s a challenge to put together a body of work in the way I was used to,” Cain said. “So, I shifted away from large-scale paintings to smaller ones. I also tried to reorganize my production schedule to allow for more intermittent and briefer work sessions that were nevertheless productive. I more or less have the same interests and themes, though.”

His wife and co-worker, Julia Cain, Director of Student Services and College Counseling, started working at NWA in July of 2000, before Cain joined the faculty in January of 2001.

“Julia first obtained a position here working at the front desk,” he said. “I had recently quit a job managing book stores and was living off of the remnants of my 401k. Julia called home one day and said that the school needed a drawing teacher. I started part-time but managed to insinuate myself into full-time work after a year or so.”

Julia was first introduced to the school by Raylea Pickett, the development director at the time at NWA.

“I had previously worked with her on some small projects while she was in the development department at OMSI,” Julia said. “She called me out of the blue to let me know that she was working at this cool little school and said there was a job opening that she thought I’d love. Turns out, she was so very right.”

Once Julia had established herself at the school, she knew just who to call when an arts teacher position opened up at Northwest Academy.

“Sean had just quit his job running a book store and was focusing on his own art as an artist at Laura Russo Gallery (now Russo Lee Gallery)” Julia said. “He had the time to teach, and Mary [Folberg, founder of Northwest Academy] loved that he was a practicing artist who had a foot in the art world, so the two met and he agreed to teach a drawing class for a semester. Eventually, one class turned into two and so on and a curriculum was made.”

According to Julia, much has changed in the size and feel of the school since she and Cain started working at NWA.

“There are still bits of the old school that stay with us that I hope we never lose: the connectivity between students and staff, respecting differences, the value of good discussion/debate, and an intrinsic love of the creative in all aspects of life,” Julia said. “Mainly, the growth has led to the biggest change, but that is to be expected. We used to feel like a mom and pop shop. No one had ever heard of the school when I mentioned where I worked. I always said it was the hidden gem of Portland. It’s not so hidden anymore!”

When two people in the same household work at the same place, it is sometimes difficult to separate work life from home life.

“We figured out early on how to keep personal stuff separate from business,” Julia said. “Maybe the only con is that NWA can be a lot, so we avoid that by leaving it at school as much as possible. No NWA talk at the dinner table.”

The Cains’ two sons Alexander and Thomas are also part of the school community. Alexander graduated last year and now attends Loyola University New Orleans. Thomas, now in ninth grade, sees both benefits and drawbacks to having his parents at the same school.

“I’ve taken eighth grade art with [my dad], and high school drawing,” Thomas said. “The pros of having my parents at the school is probably never needing to read too many emails because I can just ask if something is coming up, and getting free food in middle school. The cons may be always being invested in the school outside of class, or rather never really letting it leave my mind.”

Chris Schuck, Northwest Academy’s Head of School, met Cain when he himself interviewed to work at the school.

“He was one of several senior faculty on the Search Committee,” Schuck said. “Sean’s commitment to inspiring and guiding his students to grow as people, even before they grow as artists, is evident in everything I’ve ever heard him say or seen him do. And I think the premium he places on teaching students to draw and paint by first teaching them to see is a true gift to his students.”

Like Folberg, Schuck admires that Cain is able to produce his own art while being a teacher at Northwest Academy.

“He’s also a fabulous artist himself,” Schuck said. “The fact that he has a creative production gig on the side makes him in many ways emblematic of the NWA faculty on the whole. On top of this, Sean’s a true professional, dedicated to his students, dedicated to his craft, dedicated to the school and dedicated to the broader community. You couldn’t ask for more. But you could ask for another 20 years… and I’m hoping we get it!”

Dan Dunning, the head of high school, met Cain when he started working at NWA in 2008.

“I was teaching geometry at the time,” Dunning said. “I remember in those first years we would often talk between classes about intersections between art and geometry, and questions like: ‘How could we use geometry to make approximations of this type of column?’ And then it would be: ‘Okay, but how could we actually build it?’ He’s such an incredible thinker and it was a blast to follow these conversations into questions, get completely stumped, and then work out the solutions with him.”

Blake Larpenteur, a high school senior, has had drawing with Cain twice and advanced art once and sees Cain as a consistent presence at the school.

“Since I’ve had one of his classes almost every year I got to know him pretty well,” Larpenteur said. “It’s nice to know your teachers. He’s very approachable. I asked him to help me with my college application portfolio.”

Yonatan Nachum, a senior, has had Cain in drawing, painting, intermediate art and advanced asrt, and sees him as not only a teacher but a mentor.

“He basically carried my high school experience,” Nachum said. “Without him I would probably be having a hard time and I would’ve given up art, maybe. To be honest, I don’t think art can really be ‘taught.’ It has to be practiced, and Sean reinforces that in his students.”