Since its launch in 2022, Prisms has brought cutting-edge, peer-reviewed educators to ICON, exploring the intersection of illustration, research, and teaching. ICON13 is no different, with over 25 speakers presenting on topics ranging from illustration pedagogy to envisioning the future of our field. Prisms isn't just for educators either: it's where theory meets practice, and where you realize that the future of illustration is happening in real time, right here.

A ticket to ICON13 automatically includes access to two days of Prisms speakers, beginning on July 15. Prisms concludes on the 16th, with our keynote speaker, just before ICON13's opening celebration. If you are a practitioner looking to be part of what's next, an educator looking for ways to revamp your curriculum, a student looking for inspiration, or an administrator looking for emerging research, Prisms is for you!

At ICON13, we are proud to announce our first ever Prisms Keynote Speaker: Shadra Strickland! Shadra is the Chair of Illustration at Maryland Institute College of Art, our host for ICON13. She is the winner of the Ezra Jack Keats Award and the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent in 2009 for her work in her first picture book, "Bird," written by Zetta Elliott. Strickland co-illustrated "Our Children Can Soar," winner of a 2010 NAACP Image Award. She has published with Lee and Low Books, Simon and Schuster, Random House, Candlewick, Chronicle Books, and Little Brown. Her books have received recognition from the American Library Association, Junior Library Guild, and other prominent literary organizations. Check out her work and mark your calendars for Shadra's keynote talk!

Our full slate of Prisms speakers and topics includes... 

ILLUSTRATION PEDAGOGY & THE CLASSROOM

Dr. Karen Jiyun Sung | From Wall Crits to Virtual Studios: Lessons for the Illustration Classrooms through Metaverse Teaching

Danielle Ridolfi | Creative Kinship: A Pedagogical Approach to Testing Picturebooks with Children in an Undergraduate Illustration Studio

Kent Smith & Matthew Cook | Redesigning Life Drawing for Illustration and Animation

Zihan Lin | Beyond Age: Illustration Education for Lifelong Learners

Goulnoush Behmanesh | Design Creativity & AI

TRANSLATING RESEARCH INTERESTS INTO TEACHING

Liam Cassidy | Linger Here: Teaching the Power of Silence in Comics

Sara Gómez Woolley | Esperancita’s Mostly True Memoir: Cultural Reunification and Healing of Migration Trauma Through Illustration

Kristy Caldwell | Imagination in Practice: Using Creative Visualization as a Research Method in the Classroom

Christina Lee | Research: "The Non-Coercive Rearrangement of Desire"

EDUCATION THROUGH MUSEUMS, ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Jessi Cerutti & Andrea Degener | (Re)Collections: Special Collections as MFA Classroom

Kerry Roeder | Illustrators in the Archive

D.B. Dowd | Foraging Among Fascicles: Reframing Illustration History Through The Pickwick Papers

ENVISIONING ILLUSTRATION FUTURES

Hadi Rahmati, Rahele Jomepour Bell, Afsaneh Sanei, Yasaman Aghili | Agency in the Age of Algorithms: Reframing AI in Illustration Pedagogy through a Design Lens

Jenn Liv | The Future of Water: Activating Illustration in Augmented Reality

Noah Jodice | What Is the Pen Tool?

Nishra Ranpura | Illustrating the Invisible Instruments: Visual Infrastructures in Speculative Systems

GRADUATE STUDENT PANELISTS

Maddie Baker | Froggy People: Anthropomorphism and Slice-of-Life in Autobiographical Comics

Sanjana Sharma | Culinary Storytelling: Illustration as an Interactive Bridge Between Culture and Food

Justin Jenkins | Thoro: Black Illustrators in Hip-Hop and Their Influence on Global Illustration

Krittika Mittal | How Personal Memory Informs Illustrated Narratives through Emotions and Archives

Lottie Caiella | In Favor of the Mother-Artist: The Case for Self-Actualization in Motherhood

Cleonique Hilsaca | The Imaginary Friend: A Narrative Device in Picture Book Storytelling

And our KEYNOTE SPEAKER...

Shadra Strickland | Wearing Many Hats - Juggling Art and Education

ICON13 Discount Tickets and More:

• Our final discount: We have limited numbers of our final discount left! 😳. Don't miss out before ticket prices increase.
• Our Group Rate Discount is LIVE! Get 5 tickets to ICON13 and save big. Great for organizations, offices, or your closest pals.
• Come to ICON13 with a buddy and save! With our "Buddy Discount", you save $150 on full price ICON13 tickets!
• Local to Baltimore? Save $75 by selecting "Local Discount" when bookingt! Includes all living in MD, DE, VA, PA and DC. State ID required at check in.
• Students and Educator discounts, too! Educators save $75 on full-price tickets. Students save even more!

Hit the link below and check out all the ways to save on ICON13.