Vicky Grube earned a BA and an MEd in education from the University of Illinois. After teaching in an early childhood program in Urbana, Illinois and the ECEC lab school in Iowa City, Iowa, Grube received an MFA in Theatre Arts from the University of Iowa. She was awarded four state, one regional and one national NEA. She became the director of a Suzuki preschool arts program in Iowa City, taught art, art education and theatre design as an adjunct at the University of Iowa, Mt Mercy College and Cornell College while earning a PhD in Art Education from the University of Iowa. She has exhibited her paintings and sculptures in numerous locations such as University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa; Lloyd Shinn Gallery, Chicago Illinois, The Joslyn Art Museum, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Des Moines Art Museum, University of Iowa, Cornell College, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, East Tennessee State University among other galleries.

Grube’s scholarly area of interest is critical pedagogy, materiality, and early childhood education. Grube has published her research in Visual Arts Research, International Journal of Education and the Arts, Art Education, Forum ( Oxford, UK) The Qualitative Study, and Cultural Studies > Critical Methodologies with a chapter in Holistic Art Education. In 2009 Grube began a child directed art studio at Appalachian State University based on a program called Room 13 conceived in Scotland. This drew 34 children ages 7-13 who lead the curriculum based on what materials can teach. This became a permanent practicum site for art education majors. She created study abroad opportunities for art education student teachers in Scotland and England after earning funding to study abroad over the course of seven years. Recently, Grube is creating autobiographical graphic novels and is altering an old school bus to be sustainable and to serve as a traveling art studio for children.