Mary Higgins was born and raised in Washington DC. After graduating with a BFA from Corcoran College of Art and Design in 1986, she worked for six years at The Phillips Collection before moving to Northern Virginia. She received her MA in Visual Information Technology from George Mason University in 1995 where she received a Graduate Teaching Fellowship and taught a graduate level computer animation course. From the late 90’s through the early 2000’s, she served as an adjunct professor at George Mason University while working as a creative director for a start-up technology company.
She has twice received awards for her creative and innovative approach to problem solving. Once for producing educational interactive design projects for the National Library of Medicine and the second from the City of Fairfax Chamber of Commerce for leading her own startup company.
Recently she served for five years as a gallery director and curator for the Schlesinger Center at Northern Virginia Community College where she produced or curated more than 80 exhibitions including three site-specific public installations. Presently, she is an independent curator and consults with working artists on the development of their marketing and digital media production.
Throughout her career, she has maintained her artistic practice of drawing and exhibiting throughout the Washington DC region and participated in her first international exhibition experience in Seoul, South Korea in January of 2023.
