Anwar Nasr

Anwar Nasr is a multi-disciplinary artist and an Expressive Arts Therapist living in Vancouver Canada. Anwar moved to Canada in 2012 bringing a long his middle-eastern heritage and culture. He is fascinated by embodying emotions and works with artistically expressing them through different mediums. His biggest influence comes from Richard pachinko’s original work of infusing the world of clown and mask. Anwar has embraced Richard’s work through apprenticing with David MacMurray Smith. Anwar is also a puppeteer who has apprenticed and worked with the Old Trout Puppet Workshop. He is a graduate of Langara’s Fine Arts and Expressive Arts Therapy programs and member of Ontario Expressive Arts Therapy Association.

“In a classroom I am inspired by diversity. That includes cultural and background diversity. Also diversity in the ways students learn and express themselves.”

Wen Wen (Cherry) Lu

Wen Wen Lu is an emerging artist interested in installation, sculpture, and painting with dabblings in a variety of mediums. She thinks of her practice as a conceptual dance where each movement requires its own set of research and material choice. Wen Wen often gravitate towards exploring the hidden, the small, and the in-between. Or in the metaphor of dance, she finds the possibility between one movement to another more intriguing than the arrival of a finale. She is a recent graduate of Emily Carr University with a Bachelor in Visual Arts and is also an art teacher to a few vibrant groups of kids age three to eighteen. They and those around her know her as Cherry.

“I find great joy in working with young people who are eager to absorb and play with such freedom. Many times, I may bring them a single idea and they are able to take it to a spectrum of places I can never think of. They inspire me to play more, to explore and take pride in imagination. “

Danielle Wensley

Danielle moved to Vancouver to attend Emily Carr University in 2015. Prior to her time as a student, she danced with DJD, a jazz company in Calgary. The company focuses on the roots of jazz dance as well as contemporary expressions of the form. Her time with the company solidified for her the importance of collaboration and collectivity in regards to developing a production made for stage. Since leaving the company she has been focusing on her studies at Emily Carr. She is a Fine Arts major with a focus on Sculpture. She loves the conceptual focus at Emily Carr because there is a lot of flexibility in defining her own practice within a broader focus such as Sculpture. She is interested in addressing themes around feminisms, body politics and rhythm through different methodologies of writing, movement and object making; and through it all, the opportunity to play.

“I am inspired to work in classrooms because it is another place where positive notions around possibility can spark and ripple out into the world.”

Echo Yi Meng Sun

Echo Yi Meng Sun was born in mainland China back in the late 80's and she moved to Vancouver with her family in 2006. She completed Visual Art B.F.A. from Emily Carr university of Arts and Design in 2014 with a minor in Curatorial Studies. Since then, she taught art lessons and summer camps at 4Cats art studios for 3 years. She now works as custom picture framer. During her spare time, she continues painting drawing and pursues ceramics.

“I think because I didn't attend school in Canada when I was young, I'm always curious of Canadian ways of schooling. In the art classes I’ve been involved in teaching, we’ve use positive language exclusively to foster a supportive and creative environment.”

Julia Siedlanowska

Julia was born and is currently living as a theatre maker on unceded Coast Salish Territories. She has worked with companies such as Pacific Theatre, The Only Animal, The Arts Club, The Firehall Arts Centre, The Cultch, Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret, Rumble Theatre, Classic Chic, Talking Stick Festival, and MACHiNENOiSY Dance Society. This summer she participated in Talking Treaties with Jumblies Theatre in Toronto, deepening her passion for community engaged arts. She also directed Wyspa for The Only Animal’s Generation Hot: Waterborne, a production written by herself and Kanon Hewitt and created in collaboration with five youth artists. Julia is co-artistic director of Shakespeare Unchained, exploring classic texts through dance and theatre, site-specifically. She holds a BA in Acting from the University of Wales.

“I believe the classroom is the most important and greatest opportunity to create an environment where youth can learn to be conscientious, intelligent, confident, compassionate and emotionally aware individuals. It is our greatest opportunity to create an environment where youth are respected. This will in turn lead to their own ability to respect others and most importantly themselves.”

Katie Beugh

Katie is an interdisciplinary artist in her fourth year of study at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Her focus is in visual arts, and she is working towards a minor in social practice and community engagement. She currently works in classrooms as an itinerant school and student support worker for the Vancouver School Board. Her art practice has a strong ecological component, where the topics she explores often are related to connections to, with, and in nature, and with other beings.

“I am passionate about educating, and activating young minds towards creative ways, and processes. Tackling all subjects in the curriculum, in art and beyond, is extremely important to me as an artist and educator, as I believe it leads to better problem solving skills, innovative thinking, and so much more.”

Lola Storey

Lola was born and raised in Vancouver where she has maintained an art practice from a young age. Graduating in Lord Byng Secondary Mini Arts program for visual art, she continued to study art in the Studio Arts program at Concordia University for three years, where she then transferred to The University of British Columbia to complete a BFA in Art History, Visual art and theory. She has pursued research in education, accessibility, and language, to understand learning methods and develop programs that facilitate education in contemporary practices. “As an individual who excelled in learning in creative contexts and struggled in linear-based, test method learning, I believe it is incredibly important to maintain diverse methods of teaching for students. It is such a pleasure to me to witness and research how students respond differently to creative projects, so that I can further understand how to effectively develop accessible programs.”

Madelyn Osborne

Madelyn Osborne is a Vancouver-based theatre actor, director and creator. She is a graduate of Douglas College and received an Honours Bachelor’s Degree in Acting from the University of Wales. Select acting credits include; Joan of Arc (Forward and to the Right, Gallery 7), Elizabeth (Frankenstein 1945, Nebula Theatre) and Rosa (Innocence, Uni. of Wales). Select directing credits; The Mystery Plays (Little Mountain Lion Productions) and Disposable Generation (Monster Moon Theatre/The Only Animal). Madelyn is a co-founder of Dirt Road Productions and MOMS. Catch her next project as the director for Little Mountain Lion Productions, Mr.Burns: A Post Electric Play in April 2018.

“My favourite part of the process is when an idea or an exercise truly sinks in for a student. That moment where they are encouraged by the fact that they have gained a tool to help them express themselves is worth everything. It is so vital for the future of the Vancouver art scene to nurture and support the next generation of artists.”

Shelby Wyminga

Originally from the interior of BC, Shelby moved to the lower mainland to study theatre at Trinity Western University. While working on my BFA in Acting, she studied drawing and painting, which led her to discover a love of set design. Since graduation in May 2016 she has kept busy both acting and designing all over Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Her most recent acting credits include Gloria in It's A Glorious Wonderful Life (Morrow's Lark), roles in Still The Kettle Sings (Plan Z Theatre), Juliet and Bevolio in Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare Canada), and Lucy Steele in Sense and Sensibility (Metro Theatre). When she is not onstage, she works for Pacific Fairytales, a children's events company where she plays a host of princesses, superheros and other popular characters at birthday parties and corporate events.

“In high school, some of the biggest influences on my life were my Art and Drama teachers. They inspired me to step outside my shell, interact with people I normally wouldn't have much in common with, and to follow my artistic impulses. I think the arts are SO important for young people, whether they pursue careers in art or not. It's a way to wrestle with your experience of the world, while creating something beautiful rather than contributing to deconstruction.”

Tianna Barton

Born in a log cabin, Tianna Barton was raised homesteading on Cortes Island before spending four years of her early adulthood living in various big and small cities around the world. Studying at Emily Carr University of Art + Design led her to an interdisciplinary practice with an emphasis on performative and interactive sculpture with film as a method for storytelling and capturing performance. Driven by socio-political concerns, Barton’s work strives to create discourse and ask questions. She uses texture, pattern and busyness as metaphors for the rarely acknowledged reality that every discussion has a multitude of paradigms, experiences and opinions; this is also represented through ambiguity and a chaos of interpretations within the work. The probing of specific dogmas, hypocrisies, barriers and social norms in her works are sometimes parallels for more complex issues — where decisions and critical thought are often a steaming pot of conflicting points.

“I am concerned and excited for our future generation of makers and thinkers and I want to be a part of the role models that guide them”

Meaghan Iversen

Meaghan Iversen is an illustrator based in Vancouver, Canada. She graduated from Emily Carr University with a BFA and majored in Illustration, supplemented by courses in drawing, painting, and animation. Currently, she works as an art instructor, teaching children ages 4 to 17 and also leads painting events for adults. She loves learning and telling the stories of other people in her work and genuinely hopes that it promotes empathy. People often call her Meg.

“Making art in a classroom environment with young people means experiencing the many different ways in which people learn to make representations, both intuitive and methodical. It's exciting and inspiring and challenges my approach to art-making every day."

Meichen Waxer

Meichen is a recent Masters of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design graduate, as well holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Ontario College of Art and Design University. Developing her practice through different geographies is very important to her and she was recently an artist in residence at Treignac Projet, France; Anvil Centre, New Westminster and Halka Sanat, Istanbul, Turkey. Recent exhibitions include #3 Gallery, Vancouver Canada; Charles H. Scott, Vancouver, Canada; and Open Studio, Toronto. She sist as Vice-President of the Board of Directors at Or Gallery, Vancouver, Canada. She recently co-founded and co-directed Arts Assembly, a community-focused women identified run and led arts organization that emphasizes artistic collaboration

“I am a strong believer that engaging children and youth with creative practices encourages them to be not only embrace their own creativity and boost confidence; but become better citizens. Not every child will grow to have a creative career, however I believe every child can benefit from creative problem solving and become stewards for a future that embraces diverse thinking and expression.”

Heather Lamoureux

Heather Lamoureux is privileged to be a guest on the Coast Salish Territory of the Musquem, Squamish and Tsliel-Waututh nations. Here she is a producer, artist, activist and facilitator. Her work stems from her relationship with mother earth, she lives with determination to walk with generosity in her feet and with honesty and in her heart, planting seeds where she may on her path.

Heather is the Artistic Director of Vines Art Festival, producer at Raven Spirit Dance and works for other performing arts organization including the PuSh International Arts Festival and Dancing on the Edge. Trained in Expressive Movement Therapy from Tamalpa Institute under instruction of Anna and Daria Halprin and a BFA in Dance with minor in Business Administration from Simon Fraser University. She volunteers at BC Crisis and Suicide Prevention Centre.

“Movement and the expressive arts can play an essential role in the healing of our world and are essential to embodied learning, giving us the tools to improve our quality of life. I believe in an artistic avenue to support education about our personal story and then relate it to our community and society.”