For Jacy Biggs, middle school art teacher at Macomb Junior High, creativity isn’t a subject — it’s a mindset. Whether she’s guiding students through clay projects or cardboard engineering challenges, her classroom hums with curiosity and color, a space where experimentation and resilience meet.

Jacy didn’t always teach art. Her career began in special education, working in settings that tested her patience and empathy. “My first job was in a youth center,” she said. “All of the students were incarcerated males.” From there, she moved into high school and eventually an alternative school that blended Montessori and John Dewey philosophies. “That’s where I started teaching art,” she explained. “It was hands-on, and kids could really get their emotions into the clay — squeezing, shaping, even smashing it when things went wrong.”

The shift ignited something lasting. She earned a master’s in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in art education, and is now completing a second master’s focused solely on teaching art — “by art teachers, for art teachers,” she said.

Art runs deep in her family. Her mother earned a degree in graphic arts and once had an offer to design for Lowe’s before choosing to stay home to raise Jacy and her brother. “She still paints, draws, and even does calligraphy for family events,” Jacy said. “And my dad was a plumber who drew blueprints for his work — so he was creative in his own way.”

Growing up in East Peoria, Jacy didn’t take a formal art class until her senior year of high school. But the creative spark was always there. “My mom was my ‘picture person,’” she said, recalling a program where parents visited classrooms to share famous artwork and lead fun projects. “That was the best day every month — when art came into the classroom.”

After a decade in Kansas, where her husband worked for Scouting America, the couple returned to Illinois to be closer to family. “We actually live at the camp where we met as teenagers,” she said, laughing. “Everyone says it’s cute — and it kind of is.”

Jacy’s classroom today reflects the life she’s built — rooted in the belief that creativity is inseparable from problem-solving. “With ceramics, students can experiment without fear,” she said. “If something collapses, they can squish it up and start again. Clay can be recycled, and that makes failure feel like part of the process.”

That philosophy extends into projects that blend art with STEM. “Right now, my students are designing and building houses out of cardboard,” she explained. “They start with scale blueprints — there’s math involved — and then they construct, decorate, and paint them. Some have grown way beyond what I expected.”

Her clay club, which now runs in two sections because of high demand, provides another outlet for creativity. “They can come in, work on projects, and collaborate,” she said. “It’s their time to just be hands-on and explore.”

When COVID-19 disrupted traditional instruction, Jacy found new ways to teach art remotely. “We couldn’t assume students had materials at home,” she said. “So we did things like color scavenger hunts or building color wheels out of found objects. It was a different kind of creative flexing.”

That ability to adapt — and to keep art accessible — has defined her approach ever since. “Art is where students learn to try again, to think critically, to persevere,” she said. “Those are life skills. And they need a space where it’s okay to mess up.”

Jacy credits her autonomy and the supportive culture at Macomb Junior High for allowing creativity to thrive. “I have a lot of freedom in my classroom,” she said. “I can design projects that fit my students’ interests, try new ideas, and connect art to other subjects. I never feel boxed in.”

Which might explain why, when asked to describe her teaching philosophy, she smiled and said, “Think outside the cardboard box.”