The 2025-’26 school year will be Andrew Butterfield’s, Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School’s ceramics teacher, last year, as he plans to retire after 12 years of teaching at IBW.
Before coming to IBW, Butterfield began his teaching career in 1995 at Marshall High School and Jefferson High School, each for a year, and then spent 17 years at Da Vinci Arts Middle School.
In high school, his guidance counselor told him that he should study engineering in college. However, after getting there, he realized that math wasn’t for him. Instead, he saw how much he enjoyed his art classes, which led him to teach ceramics.
“When I think back to high school, I don’t remember my math classes,” said Butterfield. “But I remember my senior seminar, going to Mexico and camping in the desert, and I remember geology class when we went to geological sites and studied them first hand.”
Butterfield believes that experiences shape education: it is experiences that stick with you long after they happen and impact how you see and interact with the world. Through his own teaching, he strove to create these situations and provide opportunities for students to grow and explore.
One such experience was going to Indonesia during college to study mask carving, painting and music. “I think everyone should have to [participate in study abroad programs],” said Butterfield.
In the ceramics pathway at IBW, students begin by trialing both hand-building and wheel-throwing to discover their own style. Students do mask-making, pinch pots, sugar bowls and countless other projects.
“I have had such a spectacular time in ceramics and it’s changed my life,” Dalya Lyons, a senior in AP Ceramics, said. “He [Butterfield] is so insightful and he is the perfect combination of funny and wise and knowledgeable.”
The ceramics department will be changing. Matt Carlson, the current photography teacher, will be taking over teaching all ceramics classes, with the help of James Houghton. Houghton was a previous student of Butterfield in the IBW ceramics program and has since been working in a ceramics studio.
As Carlson transitions from teaching photography classes to ceramics, Katie Sullivan will be taking over photography and continuing to teach printmaking at IBW. Marie Pearson, another art teacher at IBW, will not have any changes to her schedule and will continue teaching her usual classes such as AP 2D Art, Illustration, and Draw-Paint-Print. Since the art program is losing a teacher, art class sizes could be larger and classes could be harder to get into.
Butterfield has been teaching at Portland Public Schools for the last 35 years, directly after finishing his own schooling. “After 55 years of going to school every day, it is time for something new,” said Butterfield.
This summer, he plans to go on a kayaking trip with his friend, traveling from Eugene to Portland in roughly five days. He will be working on his farm in Onalaska, Washington, to grow food.
“I hope my current students continue to explore and be creative and look for wonderful experiences in their lives,” says Butterfield. His advice is to “always follow what makes you happy, don’t just look for what will make you the most money.”
