Nora Unicoi Stewart was born and raised in Chicago and graduated with a degree in Art Education from the University of Illinois, Chicago. Creativity has not been sparse in her immediate family of painters, metal smiths, photographers, and digital multimedia developers. 

At the age of 23, Nora founded Unicoi Art Studio. At that time she was also a kindergarten teaching assistant at Francis Parker School and taught special dance and art classes in Parkers after school program as well. In fact, her father, a metal sculptor, had welded the lettering for the front of the school years before she taught there. 

From 1998-2018, Nora  managed Unicoi and directed all the art classes, birthday parties and camps there. She wrote thousands of  new and unique lesson plans used across the Unicoi curriculum and camps which inspire children to learn art!

Nora is currently legally blind and was diagnosed with cone rod dystrophy at age 21 which has slowly deteriorated her vision, but she is still creating many art pieces today and encourages those with disabilities to “never give up on their goals”.  Currently she has illustrated 3 and written 2 self published books which can be found on Amazon:  The banana who never quit, The Colors of St. Croix and Balance.

Amelia is the site manager for Unicoi Art Studio in Chicago. She graduated from Indiana University Bloomington with a BFA in Painting and a BA in Psychology. Amelia is an oil painter whose practice is currently focused on communication and lack of connection. She grew up in South Bend, Indiana and has loved art all her life. While her original love is for drawing, she has explored many different mediums from sculpture, to ceramics, to some textile work. 

Since beginning working at Unicoi in 2018, Amelia has enjoyed sharing her love of art with the kids and seeing their love and understanding of art grow. She is looking forward to this school year and the chance to continue sharing that love of art with even more kids

Megan Rivera is a multidisciplinary artist who creates upcycled fashion, handmade jewelry, functional art, and illustrations. She graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2020 with a BFA in illustration and has a background in youth art education.

Kaylee is a multi-media artist  currently focusing primarily on portraiture. Kaylee uses digital art, graphite, charcoal, and printmaking as her mediums and enjoys combining elements of realism, expressionism, and surrealism in her work.

Kaylee was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and attended college in Grand Rapids Michigan, where she received a BFA in Printmaking and Drawing at Kendall College of Art and Design. After graduating, Kaylee moved to Chicago and has no plans on leaving in the near future but would love to end up living on a big ranch someday surrounded by numerous animals and houseplants. 

While Kaylee has worked  many different jobs as an artist including, Digital interior decorator, Graphic designer, and artist consultant for a restaurant marketing team, She finds teaching for Uniqoi the most fulfilling job she has had.