Katie Staib is an international sculptor, painter, and designer. Katie enjoyed a decade long career with the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. She joined the MAC education staff as the Resident Teaching Artist. Over the years she enjoyed the ability to gain experience and expand her role first to Visitor Experience Specialist, then Youth Programs Manager. She spent the final six years of her museum career as Director of Education. Additionally, as a Smithsonian fellow, she engaged in professional development through the Visiting Professionals Program led by the Smithsonian Affiliates in Washington D.C. In her role as Museum Education Director, she was entrusted with the leadership of the dynamic and highly capable education team, engaging in meaningful work with that team, as well as the leadership team, and the entire MAC staff.

Engaging the community with educational and exciting arts programming was the most rewarding part of her work with the MAC. Creating experiences that lead to curiosity and hopefully, lifelong learning was very exciting. She enjoyed a career that aligned well with her values around education, community, arts, and culture. She is passionate about travel and culture, having lived and worked abroad for 5 years teaching art in California, Japan, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua prior to landing at the Spokane Art School when she first arrived in Spokane, Washington.

Her work is as diverse as the countries she lived in and visited, ranging from substantial international community mural projects to detailed sculptures. Katie’s mural work gave a new face to a small two story school for impoverished children in Granada, Nicaragua. Later, Katie returned to Nicaragua for another large scale, mural project for the Building New Hope organization, and to coordinate the non-Spanish speaking volunteers who assisted in the endeavor. Only her interest in travel rivals her passion for art and education. Working in a place that brings the world to the community through traveling exhibitions was very rewarding for her. As an artist, she feels very lucky to have been able to spend her career surrounded by art and culture everyday on the beautiful museum campus. With such a passion for education, how fitting that her career provided the opportunity to support education in her community. One of her favorite experiences, hearing a student say “this was the best day of my life,” and when asked to elaborate on the reason, “because of the clay.” That is the sort of thing that delighted her over the years in her work with the museum and what continues to inspire her to make and teach art.

Her history prior to the museum of teaching experience ranging from working with non-profits and private schools in Nicaragua and Costa Rica to teaching art and English in Japan, coupled with her business education through Whitworth, prepared her for the leadership role with the MAC. Prior to her role with the museum, as the Coordinator of International Art and English, a position she held through the Shishikui Board of Education in Japan, she developed curriculum and fostered cross cultural communication as well as coordinated engaging activities that showcased American culture. She worked with groups as large as 60 students as well as provided one on one lessons and with ages ranging from preschool to retirement age. Teaching such a range of grade levels and abilities shaped her as a dynamic educator.

Katie studied art under Ernest Welke and Bill Riley at Saddleback College in California, attaining her degree of Associate in Arts with a strong concentration on ceramic sculpture and bronze casting. She went on to study business, receiving her Bachelor of Arts from Whitworth University in Washington. Subsequent to that, Katie refined her mastery of figurative sculpture with direction from Edward Eyth, accomplished and internationally recognized sculptor and director of Richard MacDonald’s workshops. She currently studies under Stan Miller, renowned watercolorist, to continue developing her painting expertise. Katie also continues to collaborate with artists from other regions. Her work has been exhibited in various countries and venues.