about marissa, SQUAD’s founder + director

Hi! I am Dr. Marissa Sweeny, and I am so passionate about cultivating space to support caregivers and educators as they develop and nourish their relationships with young children through conscientious creative practice.

I have been an early childhood educator, artist, and researcher for nearly twenty years, and I am now a parent to three young children. As a Montessori prepared and Reggio Emilia-inspired educator, I have devoted my career to understanding how young children make art and meaning from birth with and through everyday materials. I founded SQUAD Art Studio when my oldest son was a baby in part to provide him with the materials rich, high-quality, and aesthetically engaging art practice that I constructed for children in my classrooms.

I am committed to helping you to not only strengthen your relationship with young children through shared making but to also rekindle and reconnect with your own creativity so that together you can transform your lives.

We all know that early childhood is a short period of time. Creating together provides therapeutic tools, inspires creative skills that are useful in any future profession, and creates space to value on the present moment to generate childhood memories that last a lifetime!

About my qualifications: I have been leading and administrating community-based and Saturday School art programs for young children and their caregivers for nearly twenty years. I hold a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, a MA in Art Education from the University of Arizona, and a PhD in Art Education with an emphasis in Early Childhood Art Education. I was Montessori prepared with the American Montessori Society and studied the Reggio Emilia approach in Reggio Emilia, Italy. I am P-12 certified in Art and Language Arts and currently serve as Professor and Program Director of Early Childhood Education at Carlow University in Pittsburgh. I have received multiple awards for my teaching and research with young children, and we have exhibited our work together in national juried exhibitions.  

In my research and teaching, I have prioritized work with historically marginalized populations of young children including English Language Learners, children who are neurodivergent, children who are immigrants and refugees, children experiencing homelessness, and disabled children. this work, I developed a deep understanding of the importance of art for early childhood.

I have served as a consultant, curriculum designer, and visiting scholar for local, regional, and national organizations . I have advised on processes for integrating art into early childhood education and developed curricula and resources for educators and caregivers. I am co-author with Dr. Lynn Beudert, Professor Emerita of the University of Arizona School of Art, of the best-selling book Curriculum Inquiry and Design for School and Community-Based Art Education, published by the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Press. My research and art making with young children has appeared in numerous books, journal articles, and exhibitions. I have served in varied national and international leadership roles including as a Past-President and Board Member of the Early Childhood Art Educators and as an inaugural Co-Editor of the new journal, Childhood Art: An International Journal of Research from the University of Arkansas Press.