By Discovery
We are passionate about supporting children's growth through the visual arts.
Jocelyne
Adkins
Jocelyne Adkins is the Program Director and Lead Educator for By Discovery. Jocelyne founded By Discovery at Beye School in 2011 to offer children creative, project-based learning in art and nature-based science. She loves working with youth and is inspired by their enthusiasm, creativity and endless knowledge. As a child, Jocelyne was fascinated by the process of making and enjoyed bringing something into the world that didn't exist before. Her family's resourcefulness and creativity provided a foundation for her to build upon and she strives to provide the same for her students. Jocelyne holds a Master of Arts in Art Education degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Saint Mary's College in Indiana. She has 23 years of teaching experience, including preschool through college levels. She loves spending time with her family and their dog Luna, exploring nature and creative endeavors. She always looks forward to facilitating spectacular creative projects with By Discovery students!
Stacey
Grieff
Stacey has a background in the Arts and Early Childhood Education. Her previous career as a fine art portrait photographer spanned more than 15 years. It was through this work, while photographing families and children, that she discovered a natural ability to connect with children and a desire to work with them in more impactful ways. Stacey earned her master’s in Early Childhood Education from The Erikson Institute. Here she gained a deep knowledge of child development and research-based instructional practices. Stacey holds a Professional Educator’s License with endorsements in both Special Education and English as a Second Language.
Since earning her master’s, Stacey has worked as the Assistant Director of a non-profit organization focused on early literacy, a parent-child literacy coach, a preschool teacher in Cicero Public Schools and, in conjunction with an Erikson Institute research study, she worked in Chicago Public Schools with kindergarten through second-grade students teaching mindfulness concepts. Stacey was a lead educator at By Discovery from 2019 through the spring of 2023.
Growing up in a family of artists and craftsmen, Stacey knows first-hand how creating something with your hands can build confidence, expand problem-solving skills, and fill one’s heart with joy. She believes all children benefit from creative experiences and cannot
wait to start creating with your children once again at By Discovery.
Gray
Snyder
Gray Snyder is an interdisciplinary artist and educator from Southeast Michigan, based in Chicago, IL. She earned her BFA in Art & Design from the University of Michigan in 2023. Gray works primarily with the mediums of sculpture, ceramics, fiber, and video. Through multimedia exploration her work explores themes of memory, intergenerational stories, and the role of objects and rituals in healing practices.
Gray believes that art making is an incredible catalyst for inspiring self discovery, community building, and intellectual curiosity. She has experience working as a Graphic Design Instructor at the Detroit Boxing Gym, and is thrilled to continue teaching with By Discovery. She looks forward to facilitating a supportive environment for expansive art making, where students are encouraged to confidently experiment, collaborate, and discover new creative processes. Outside of artmaking, Gray deeply enjoys dancing to good music, cooking with friends, and biking fast.
Anne
White
Anne White (b. 2002; New Orleans, LA) is a cartoonist and writer who is currently based in Chicago, Illinois. Anne creates work that is fiction and auto-biographical fiction. Their work focuses on the interpersonal uncanny, futurism and black queerness. The artist is an alumnus of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with their Bachelor's in Fine Arts.
Anne is excited about joining the By Discovery team as they previously worked at the YMCA's STEAM summer camp in 2025. They most enjoyed connecting with students and helping them thrive academically and emotionally. Anne looks forward to sharing the joy of art and its history with youth. They see being a Teaching Artist at By Discovery as a great way to nurture these passions. In their personal time Anne enjoys watching movies, tv shows and reading.
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Sarah
Winans
Sarah Winans is an artist from Oak Park. She received her BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) in 2025, majoring in Illustration.
Growing up, Sarah was always drawing, creating characters and worlds with her powerful imagination. She developed a strong sense of storytelling through design and setting. Sarah loves working in all sorts of mediums from pen drawings to painting to digital art. Her creations aren't limited to illustrations; she also loves to sew, designing and creating some of her own clothes and stuffed animals, and she enjoys sculpting with clay and other materials.
Since graduating, Sarah has worked as a freelance illustrator creating backgrounds for a short film, and she is developing her own video game. Outside of art, Sarah worked at the West Suburban Special Recreation Association (WSSRA) for the last 5 summers, where she honed her ability to help and inspire others through leadership, creativity, and compassion. She's very excited to use her WSSRA experience, plus her passion for art, to help foster your children's creativity and storytelling this year!
Liam
Shaw
Liam Shaw is a multidisciplinary artist and writer originally from Houston, Texas. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he received a BFA in Studio with a concentration in sculpture.
Working mainly with sculpture and video, Liam’s work explores the recontextualization of everyday objects, treating the everyday as stanzas or notes and looking for the poetry, music and new meanings in what’s on hand. Drawing from an interest in written formats, he works in large scale installations and assemblages, forming his findings into new narratives.
Alongside his studio practice, Liam has worked as a teaching assistant at the Hyde Park Arts Center in Chicago and a substitute teacher with Chicago Public Schools.
With a firm belief that art can be made from anything and by anyone, he is excited to share that outlook with By Discovery students using the fabrication skills needed to make an
idea or a story tangible.
Mark
Adkins
Mark Adkins is a mixed media artist who enjoys working abstractly with pen and ink, collage, watercolor and acrylic paint. He has been a participant in sixteen exhibitions, inclusion in nine publications, including New American Paintings, New York Arts Magazine and featured in a 2006 Chicago Reader artist profile by Fred Camper. He retired from a twenty-eight year career at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2019. Since then, Mark has volunteered behind the scenes in many of By Discovery's day to day operations and also as a substitute teacher. Creating art with students has been especially meaningful and he looks forward to working with students as a substitute teacher again this year! In his spare time, in addition to art making, Mark enjoys spending time with his family, his dog Luna, and exploring nature.
Pamela
Penney
Pamela Penney is a textile and mixed media artist who has enjoyed teaching children and adults for the past 25 years. Through the Oak Park Education Foundation, she has taught in the Art Start program for D97 schools and OPEF's Summer BASE Camp. Pam is actively involved at the Oak Park Art League as an instructor, artist member and having served 6 years previously on their board. Prior to this, Pam had a studio gallery in the Oak Park Arts District and was the Director of the Arts District Kids Camp for many years. In addition, she taught after school art programs through the O.P. Park District. Pam raised two children who are now adults. She continues to enjoy the company of working creatively with kids, including substitute teaching for By Discovery, when she's not spinning and weaving in her studio or out walking her two dogs!
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