Creative Collaborator

Samantha Wilborn is a child-centered arts enthusiast with a passion for music and movement. She recently accepted a General Music Teaching position at Barack Obama Elementary School in Richmond Public Schools. She began her inclusive teaching journey with the SPARC: Live Art outreach program in the spring of 2015. Under the tutelage of the late Rebecca Tyree, Professor of Choral and Vocal Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Samantha had a hand in building the scaffold for the university’s current service learning course, which unites VCU music students’ education with the Live Art program pedagogy. In the summer of 2017, she accepted her first public school teaching position at Woodville Elementary School after graduating cum laude from VCU earlier that spring. There she alchemized a potent music program centered around trauma-informed care and child-led learning for the next five years. Her curriculum was supported by the Kennedy Center’s Turnaround Arts initiative which was inaugurated under the Obama administration. She currently holds a Certificate in Art-Integrative Learning from University of Richmond’s Partner In the Arts Program. In 2020, she accepted an additional role as the Turnaround Arts Implementation Coordinator, which would allow her to support Binford Middle School and her own school’s Fine Arts programming through strategic planning and grant writing. In 2021, Samantha was honored as Teacher of the Year for the 2020-2021 school year. Through the global pandemic and adjustment to virtual learning, she continued to dedicate her time and expertise to develop art-integrative teaching strategies in virtual classrooms for her colleagues and their students’ benefit. In her spare time, she enjoys directing musicals for theater programs around the tri-city area, and supporting local musicians in their craft across Richmond's diverse music scene. She recently has begun performing with a popular local band, Deau Eyes, and is eager to reconnect with her own song-writing.