TEAM

SEAN ALWARD

Founder

Sean Alward, MFA (UBC) has over 20 years  experience as a professional artist and art educator. He has taught at the University of British Columbia, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Emily Carr University, The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, and the Vancouver Film School. He has also written about art for publications including Canadian Art, C magazine, and Border Crossings.

FIONA CHAN

Founder

Fiona is a health care professional with extensive experience working with seniors. She personally discovered the joy of unplugging through art during her Master's program, when she decided to take classes at a ceramics studio. In a short time, she has managed to make work which has been displayed at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. Fiona believes that everyone can make art, and she would like to spread the joy in learning about and making art with others.

EVAN LEE

Founder

Evan Lee, MFA (UBC) has had over 20 years experience as a professional artist and has exhibited across Canada and abroad. He has taught at the University of British Columbia and Emily Carr University and has mentored several emerging artists.

MOHAMED SOMANI

Founder

Mohamed Somani, MBA (SFU) and MFA (UBC) is an entrepreneur and artist. CEO and co-founder of Beam (a local tech startup), Mohamed is passionate about the role that creativity can play in our everyday lives. Mohamed has a background in entrepreneurship,  analytics, and process improvement. He also has over 20 years experience exhibiting as a professional artist.

EMMA CANNING

INSTRUCTOR

Emma Canning is almost always covered in dirt because she is a full-time ceramics based artist. She holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art & Design and before that studying theatre, stagecraft & sculpture at Bishop’s University in Quebec. She currently operates a tiny pottery studio in East Vancouver called "the dirt bunker" that allows people space to explore clay as a creative outlet. She is hoping that her ceramics adventures will someday lead to a sculpture garden for goats, but in the meantime, she teaches people interesting things about the intricacies of clay & how to make functional ware.

NANCY CHONG

INSTRUCTOR

Nancy Chong, MEd (SFU) in Arts Education, is an artist at William Clark Studios and has been an educator in the Richmond and Vancouver School Districts for the past 20 years. Her paintings explore the history and gentrification of Vancouver’s Chinatown. She is a tattoo artist in training. Her undergraduate degree is in ethnomusicology, she played in the UBC
Indonesian gamelan and the zither in the UBC Chinese ensemble.

SEAN KAREMAKER

INSTRUCTOR

Sean Karemaker is a practicing artist and teacher known for his unique form of panoramic sequential art stories that take various forms including graphic novels, paintings, dioramas and virtual reality. He has 10 years of art production experience in the video games industry and harnesses this technical knowledge and production experience for use in expressive, independent art projects. Karemaker has completed 2 graphic novels ‘The Ghosts We Know’ 2016 and Feast Of Fields. His published work has been recognized by The Shuster Awards 2018, Best American Comics 2018, And CBC’s Best Canadian Comics, 2018

MAYA U SCHUELLER-ELMES

INSTRUCTOR

Maya U Schueller Elmes is an artist/printmaker from London, UK. She fell in love with printmaking whilst studying for a BA in Fine Art at Kingston University, UK, and has been experimenting with all the medium has to offer ever since. Process is at the centre of Maya’s practice, which tends to gravitate towards drawing and printmaking. She has worked in community arts for over 10 years, both in the UK and in Canada, with the aim of promoting a positive and inclusive environment that encourages everyone to feel free to be unreservedly creative. Maya was the Artist in Residence in the Printmaking department at Central Saint Martins, UK, from 2015-2017, where she was involved in teaching students printmaking and bookbinding techniques. She has also taught courses at Dundarave Print Workshop as well as mentoring artists at Malaspina Printmakers.

VANESSA SORENSON

INSTRUCTOR

Vanessa Sorenson, MA in Art History (UBC) is an creative arts professional focusing in Arts Administration and has a history of curating and writing about exhibitions. Her interest in art and art history from the Medieval period through to the 20th century is informed by her previous studies in continental philosophy.

JEREMY TODD

INSTRUCTOR

Jeremy Todd, MFA (UBC) is a practicing artist and educator with over 20 years of professional experience.  He has designed and taught studio, theory and art history courses at the University of British Columbia and Emily Carr University while serving as Director/Curator of an artist-run centre and a municipal art gallery.  Jeremy has been on faculty with the Vancouver Film School for the last 10 years, redeveloping curriculum for their Foundation Visual Art & Design programme.  He also writes regularly about art, society and the formation of cultural memory.

NEIL WEDMAN

INSTRUCTOR

Neil Wedman was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1954.  Making paintings stands at the core of thirty years of studio practice but he has devoted almost equal attention to producing drawings and works on paper including print editions, book-works and photographs.  He has also made a number of short films and musical recordings although not many of the latter. He lives and works in Vancouver and is represented there by the Equinox Gallery. Neil Wedman has been a sessional instructor teaching studio courses for the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University since 2000 and at Emily Carr University since 1991. He is currently working on plans to build a full-scale funhouse/dark ride based on the Gastown Riot of 1971.

ELIZABETH ZVONAR

Instructor

Elizabeth Zvonar graduated from Emily Carr University with a BFA in 2001. Her working method relies on the principals of collage and embraces chance. She has shown nationally and internationally and is represented by Daniel Faria Gallery.

ETIENNE ZACK

Instructor

Etienne Zack studied at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Concordia University and College St-Laurent in Montreal.

Noteworthy solo exhibitions include: Etienne Zack: Those Lacking Imagination Take Refuge In Reality, Esker Foundation, Canada; Etienne Zack, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; According to This, Bergen Kunsthall, Norway; Thomas Dane Gallery, England; Vision Machine, Surrey Art Gallery, Canada and Lingering Shadows, Blackwood Gallery at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Zack’s work can be found in institutions and museums including the National Gallery of Canada, Art Bank of Canada, Vancouver Art Gallery, Montreal Fine Arts Museum, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, National Fine Arts Museum of Quebec, Surrey Art Gallery, Glenbow Museum, City of Montréal, Zabludowicz Collection (London, England) and The Model Museum (Sligo, Ireland). His work can also be found in numerous corporate and private collections in the United States, Europe, Scandinavia, Hong Kong, Ireland, England and across Canada.

KAREN ZALAMEA

Instructor

Karen Zalamea, (MFA, Concordia) is a practising visual artist and arts educator. Her work has been presented across Canada and internationally in solo and group exhibitions and as public art projects. She teaches introductory and advanced photography courses in the Audain Faculty of Art at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.