Nathan Osgood

About Nathan

Nathan Osgood is an artist, art educator, and arts advocate from the four corners region of Colorado. Before becoming an Arts Merge faculty member, he most recently volunteered at the Warlukurlangu Art Centre, a highlight of a year-long sabbatical to study visual art in the southern hemisphere. Warlukurlangu means “Belonging to Fire” in Warlpiri, the language spoken by the Warlpiri people of Yuendumu, Northern Territory, Australia.

He is the 2023 Colorado Art Education Association - Private, Independent, Charter School Art Educator of the Year. He earned an M.A. in art education from The Art of Education University and a B.F.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder. For eight years, he taught the visual arts at Southwest Open School, a rural public charter high school that serves the diverse community of Montezuma county, Colorado. Before teaching in the classroom, he led experiential education courses in Utah, Hawaii, India, and Nepal. He grew up in Alaska, and is excited to expand the arts classroom to include the wild spaces at Interlochen Center for the Arts.

An outstanding teacher has high expectations for their students and is skilled in curriculum development, classroom management, differentiated instruction, and creative assessment to ensure that their students meet those expectations. They understand the connection between strong classroom routines, holding compassionate boundaries, building trust, and creating a positive learning environment. Students may need individualized instruction to either build the fundamentals of each technique or to build upon existing skills to express depth and complexity.