Fired Up for Ceramics

by Caroline Calista '26 
Marketing & Communications Summer Intern

Molly Frantz is fired up to be the new Ceramics Instructor at Tabor Academy! Coming from a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics at Ohio University and a Master of Environmental Science at Yale University, Ms. Frantz looks forward to sharing her passions with the lively young artists at Tabor.  

While she will teach her students to understand the “rules” of clay, she does not expect them to follow them. Ms. Frantz will help students embrace creativity and manipulate clay in abstract ways to demonstrate who they are and what they're thinking. She hopes the problem-solving skills she teaches through art, like innovation and resilience, will be remembered by her students so they can continue to be used in and out of the studio.  

Since she was a little girl, Ms. Frantz has been on the path to becoming a full-time artist. She faced adversities that only made her stronger and taught her perseverance; “successful artists are the ones who never gave up,” she quicky learned. Constantly, Ms. Frantz found herself thinking like a scientist and experimenting with varied materials and techniques in order to figure out what worked best for her. With the support from her ceramic mentors along the way, particularly her teachers Chris Gustin and Randy Johnston, she has become more comfortable and confident in herself and her work. Displaying her work to peers, students, and the public was once terrifying to Ms. Frantz, but now it is a walk in the park; she hopes to inspire others to intimate their own work as well. Being a part of a strong and supportive artistic community like the one at Tabor is a lifelong goal of Ms. Frantz and she can’t wait to have an impact on the community.  

Ms. Frantz is often inspired by various assortments of shells and seaweed washed up by the ocean after a storm; she calls this “spontaneous art.” Because of her inspiration commonly stemming from the ocean, Ms. Frantz couldn’t have picked a better location to enjoy the intricate beauty of the environment or a rigorous ceramics program than at the School by the Sea.