Teaching

I have taught drawing and painting for more than a decade, to young children, teenagers, college-bound students and adults, in museums, public schools, studios and private lessons. Whatever the age of the student, I start from the same place my own work does: careful looking. Students learn to see proportion, value, color and light before they worry about making something impressive.

From there the goal is each student’s own voice. Skill is taught step by step, through observation, composition and materials, so that it becomes a way to say something personal rather than an end in itself. In museum and school residencies I connect that studio practice to the art and histories around us, so students see themselves as part of a larger conversation.

Jacob Hicks teaching a painting and drawing class

Teaching Experience

2022–PresentEducator, Queens Museum, New York, NY

2026Queens Museum Artist Educator-in Residence, CASA Partnership, PS 135Q

2026Artist Lecturer and Workshop Facilitator, Queens Teens Institute, Queens Museum, New York, NY (April 2026)

2026Through Our Eyes, Our Own Visual Language, HANAC Harmony Senior Center Partnership hosted by the Queens Museum

2025Queens Museum Artist Educator-in Residence, CASA Partnership, Bell Academy, PS 135Q, New York, NY

2024Visiting Teaching Artist, Student Critiques, The Art Students League, New York, NY (Painting, Composition, Still Life Painting and Composition, Spring 2024)

2024Queens Museum Artist Educator-in Residence, CASA Partnership, PS 135Q, New York, NY

2024Museum commission to make art activity worksheets to activate the Visitor Interpretation Station for A Billion Dollar Dream: The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair exhibition, Queens Museum, New York, NY

2023Queens Museum Artist Educator-in Residence, CASA Partnership, PS 135Q, PS 11Q, Bell Academy, New York, NY

2023Workshop Facilitator, Indigenous Practice Studio, Queens Museum at Shinnecock Nation, Southampton, NY (August 10)

2022Educator, Smithsonian Associates, Washington, D.C.

2022Artist Lecturer and Workshop Facilitator, Queens Teens Institute, Queens Museum, New York, NY (November 22)

2021Artist Educator-in Residence, Children’s Museum of the Arts, New York, NY

2020–2022Private Drawing and Painting Instructor, New York, NY

2019–2022Educator, Children’s Museum of the Arts, New York, NY

2019–2021Painting and Drawing Instructor, Manhattan Youth, New York, NY

2015College Prep Painting and Drawing Instructor, New York Art Studio, New York, NY

2013Eric Fischl ’66 Teaching Artist-in-Residence, West Nottingham Academy, Colora, MD

2013Teaching Assistant, Long Island University, New York, NY (Curatorial Practice, Fall 2013)

2011Graduate Teaching Assistant, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY (Art & Culture: 1960 to Present, Fall 2011)