ILLUSTRATOR, DESIGNER, EDUCATOR AND CHAIR OF BFA ILLUSTRATION & BFA COMICS AT SVA

Viktor Koen is an award winning illustrator, designer and educator. He holds a BFA in Design from the Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem and an MFA in Illustration with honors from the School of Visual Arts. His client list includes the NYTimes, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Esquire, Nature, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Wired, ESPN, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, Fortune, Money, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Penguin Random House, Doubleday, Harper Collins, Rizzoli, Houghton Mifflin, Tor Books, Atlantic Records, Virgin, BBC and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. 

He is the Chair of BFA Illustration and BFA Comics Departments at the School of Visual Arts and founded the SVA Illustration Residency in 2007. A TED speaker, Mr. Koen lectures for academic institutions and conferences worldwide while serving among others, on the Adobe Photoshop Advisory Council and the Photoville board of directors.

Distinctions include: American Illustration Awards, Graphis Gold Awards, 3×3 magazine Educator of the Year and the Communication Arts magazine Award of Excellence.

CARTOONIST, EDUCATOR

Cartoonist Jason Little was a Yaddo fellow in 2024. Borb, his daily strip collection,was a 2016 silver medal winner at Society of Illustrators. Motel Art Improvement Service was an Eisner nominee for best web comic in 2007. Shutterbug Follies was a 2003 Harvey Award nominee for best graphic novel, andwon Ignatz awards for best web comic (2002) and best graphic album (2003). His first published comic book, Jack’s Luck Runs Out, was a 1998 Xeric Grant winner. He holds the position of Comics Coordinator in BFA Comics at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

beecomix.com

EDUCATOR

Pauline Kim was born and raised in New York. She studied Graphic Design at the School of Visual Arts, where she later earned a Master of Arts in Teaching in Arts Education in 2014. Early in her career, she held various design positions before transitioning into art education. She has worked with organizations such as the Joan Mitchell Foundation and Art and Heart, a private art academy focused on art therapy.

Pauline spent 11 years teaching in the New York City public school system, including positions at a 6–12 school in Flushing, the East-West School of International Studies, and I.S. 145 Joseph Pulitzer Magnet School of Innovation and Applied Learning in Jackson Heights. She currently teaches Digital Media Design and Communication Design at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School.

EDUCATOR

Joanne Riina-Denune is an art educator with twenty years of experience working within the New York City Department of Education. She is currently the visual art teacher at NYC LAB School in Chelsea, where she teaches a design thinking course, in addition to a studio elective and portfolio prep course for seniors. Prior to this position, she taught visual art at LAB Middle School for fifteen years, where she established a partnership with The Whitney Museum and developed an original curriculum grounded in the creative process and connecting it across disciplines. She acquired her undergraduate degree from Pace University and her master's degree from the School of Visual Arts (MAT 2004). When life allows it, she develops her own craft through mixed media illustrations in her home in Brooklyn alongside her husband and eleven-year-old son

ILLUSTRATOR, EDUCATOR

Aaron Meshon is an award-winning illustrator and children’s book author whose whimsical work has appeared in magazines, advertisements, children’s products, murals, food trucks, and books around the world. He also loves making maps, so he never gets lost.

When he’s not drawing, Aaron teaches illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He has also been a guest lecturer at RISD, MICA, UArts, SVA, FIT, and numerous other inspiring art and design schools.

Aaron lives and works in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where he is a member of the Railroad Street Collective. He lives with his wife, son, and French Bulldog, Tamago, in the beautiful Berkshires.

SELECTED CLIENTS:
The New York Times, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, Sony Music, Newsweek, Brooklyn Museum, Delta Air Lines, Rizzoli, TIME, Major League Baseball, Sonic Drive-In, NPR, Discovery Channel, Target, and many more.

ILLUSTRATOR, MAKER, EDUCATOR

ShinYeon Moon is a Korean-American illustrator, educator, picture book artist, and zine enthusiast based in New York. Moon holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in Illustration as Visual Essay. She teaches BFA Illustration at the School of Visual Arts and Fashion Institute of Technology. She has worked for various clients, including The New York Times, Oprah Daily, and WFMU. 

EDUCATOR, ARTIST

Sakura Maku is an artist who investigates motherhood, intercultural identities, and diaspora through East Asian and Asian-American points-of-view. She received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts and an MFA in Painting & Printmaking from Yale University. Maku has presented her work at the Center for the Arts at Towson University; the ICA Boston; the Visual Arts Gallery at School of Visual Arts; the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy; The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, New York; and the Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey. Notable collections include Japigozzi: The Jean Pigozzi Collection of Contemporary Japanese Art.

Maku is an educator whose passion for lifelong learning leads her to continue to adapt and innovate in search of insightful discovery in the classroom studio. With over a decade of experience teaching at the School of Visual Arts and SUNY Purchase, Maku has led workshops with the Met Museum, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, Studio in a School, the Deadalus Foundation, as well as the Yale University Art Gallery. Maku feels most connected with sharing the joy of making and its potential for reflection towards a deeper sense of purpose.

EDUCATOR AND COORDINATOR

Val Sereno, MA, ATR-BC, LCAT, is an instructor and Coordinator of Special Programs and Projects for the MPS Art Therapy Department at SVA. She is a board member of The Art Therapy Project, a nonprofit mental health organization. Val facilitated the first women veterans art therapy group addressing PTSD and military sexual abuse issues. Her postgraduate work includes the EDCAS program (Eating Disorders, Compulsions and Addictions) at the White Institute for Psychoanalysis and The Creativity Seminar at Harvard. She developed an international professional art therapy program in Avignon, France, and has presented her research nationally and internationally.

EDUCATOR

Susie Park teaches Studio Art and AP Government and Politics at Civic Leadership Academy in Queens, where she also advises the Art Club and Indoor Gardening Club. Outside the classroom, she enjoys oil painting and volunteers as an Art Director for the Bethesda Group, a local program supporting adults with special needs.

EDUCATOR

Naomi Barak is an art educator with 17 years of experience in the Department of Education and a co-founder of Digital Arts & Cinema Technology. Based in Brooklyn, New York, she is passionate about fostering creative inquiry and expression in the classroom. She focuses on empowering learners to develop their artistic voices, leverage technology tools, and prepare for creative careers. She holds a bachelor's and a master's degree from Clark University and a CTE license in commercial art.

DIRECTOR

Elizabeth Rosenberry is the NYCPS Director of Arts Access and Pathways. She is focused on developing and strengthening Arts Pathways with the goal of providing students with access to meaningful arts opportunities that shape their educational and artistic careers. Where gaps in a Pathway exist, Elizabeth collaborates with her Arts Office colleagues, as well as School and District Leaders, to establish new arts programming. Previously, Elizabeth was the Borough Arts Director for Queens South, serving over 160 schools in geographic Districts 27, 28, and 29. Elizabeth also taught visual arts in District 75 for 14 years and served as a unit coordinator. She is deeply committed to ensuring all students have access to high-quality arts instruction and experiences. Outside of work, Elizabeth enjoys hiking, reading, and junk journalling.