Focus on Friends: Isabel Dominguez—Building with Heart, Craft, and Community

 

In the bustling studios of Friends Seminary’s Visual Arts Department, the steady hum of creativity has a heartbeat—and many times, that heartbeat can be traced back to Isabel Dominguez. As a Lower School art teacher and K-12 Visual Arts Department Chair, Isabel is a deeply respected educator whose guiding influence spans from our youngest learners in Kindergarten to our more advanced senior art students. Isabel is known for her unwavering commitment to student-centered teaching, creativity, and instinctive leadership. 

Isabel joined Friends in 2013, stepping into a Lower School art program with enormous potential and positive energy. As she became acclimated to the school, one of the areas that Isabel examined closely was the woodworking curriculum—she approached this with the care of both an artist and an architect—assessing and imagining what could be. She spent time studying how young students interacted with tools and materials, and she began to reshape the goals of the curriculum with respect and intention for student capacity and agency. 

Through Isabel’s work and care, the woodworking program evolved and is known as one of the gems of the Lower School experience. Walk into the woodworking studio (the Shop or Room 3, as it is also known), and you’ll witness a space alive with purposeful motion and activity—saws whispering through wood, hammers tapping with rhythmic confidence, and students collaborating with a natural ease. Students, some only a bit taller than the worktables they stand beside, set to work with Japanese hand saws, hammers, nails, and squares, fully aware they are trusted. And they rise to meet that trust every day. 

That trust is Isabel’s signature. She believes deeply in children’s ability to handle real tools and real materials, and in their need for physical engagement and authentic artistic challenges. Her curriculum and instruction prompts them to think, problem-solve, refine, and persist. It asks them to create projects that will last—not temporary pieces, but works that are built with care, pride, intention, and craftsmanship. In this way, Isabel invites students not only to create art, but to also build confidence in their own abilities. 

Isabel’s approach mirrors the values she brings to the larger K-12 department as their department chairperson. She leads a team of talented and passionate art educators—each with their distinct artistic specialties and identities. Within this collection of voices, through creative, open, and honest leadership, Isabel has fostered harmony, mutual respect, and a shared focus on students. Colleagues consistently describe her as grounded, warm, and fair. She listens deeply. She collaborates authentically. She recognizes each teacher’s strengths and encourages them to pursue their own artistic, professional, and personal growth. Isabel is the kind of leader who notices when a colleague needs space to develop a new idea, when a teacher could benefit from pursuing outside professional development, or when the department as a whole needs time to regroup and reflect. She is equally committed to the day-to-day responsibilities of running a K-12 department and the long-term need to nurture a vibrant arts culture. 

Perhaps what makes Isabel so widely admired at Friends is that she teaches and leads with her whole heart. Whether she is guiding a five-year-old as they cut their first piece of wood or supporting a colleague who is preparing new curricula, she brings a reassuring presence, empathy, and a belief in the creative potential of every individual. She knows that the arts are simply not about producing objects—they are about cultivating ways of seeing, understanding, and expressing what it means to be a human being. 

More than a teacher and a department chair, Isabel is a builder—of programs, of confidence, and of community. And Friends is immeasurably stronger for all that she has built. 

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Focus on Friends is an initiative of the Friends Seminary administration designed to celebrate the people and programs that make our community thrive. Each month, a member of the Senior Administration will select an individual, group, department, or office—uplifting those who are doing exciting work, leading with creativity, or simply contributing in meaningful ways to the spirit of Friends. This month’s story was chosen and written by Devan Ganeshanathan, Associate Head of School.