Siobhan Vicens

Since completing her graduate degree at MICA, Siobhan Vicens has led arts integration professional development sessions for Baltimore City educators and now serves as the art education mentor for first-year Baltimore City visual art educators.

Siobhan Vicens teaches K-4 art at Southwest Baltimore Charter School, where she is also a lead teacher collaborating with grade-level educators to develop interdisciplinary arts integrated inquiry-based learning experiences. Since completing her graduate degree at MICA, Siobhan has led arts integration professional development sessions for Baltimore City educators and now serves as the art education mentor for first-year Baltimore City visual art educators.

In the days immediately following the Baltimore Uprising of 2015, Siobhan made a drawing inspired by a desire to help her students heal. Using her Give Our City A Hug drawing as a central component, she collaborated with colleagues to develop a way for their elementary students to process the very complex emotions arising from the social unrest. The lesson featured students coloring the drawings and discussing in small teams so that all perspectives, concerns, and opinions were shared. Teachers at other Baltimore City Schools heard about Siobhan's art lesson and requested her materials. Ultimately teachers across the City and, via social media, throughout the US, implemented versions of the Give Our City A Hug lesson, facilitating, through art, classroom conversations about race and power.

In addition to speaking frequently at national conferences on Expeditionary Learning Education, Siobhan has presented at National Art Education Association conferences, including, in 2013, her MAAE research,

I Am the Sum of My Experience: A Qualitative Case Study."