Haliburton School of Art and Design

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Art + Design Education Leaders

We're known for providing unique and flexible programs taught by professionals who have shaped art, craft, design, media and heritage studies in Canada. No other college offers students this breadth of creative programming.

Learn at campuses in Haliburton and Peterborough that provide a one-of-a kind, hands-on studio experience. Our certificate, diploma and post-graduate programs will help you build a solid portfolio to take you to the next step - whether that's continuing education, embarking on a career, or starting your own practice.

Find your program

Featured Program

Build Your Foundation, Then Ignite Your Creativity

Earn a Visual and Creative Arts diploma in just three semesters with foundation courses and hands-on studio experience!

Apply Now
  • Ceramics

    Express yourself through clay! Our program provides a well-rounded foundation, from practical skills like wheel throwing to marketing and portfolio development.

    Ceramics
  • Drawing and Painting

    Level up your studio skills in just 15 weeks! Get hands-on training and experience to take your creativity to the next level.

    Drawing and Painting
  • Create, learn, and live where inspiration surrounds you.

    We’re happy to share that for the first time ever, HSAD students can enjoy the convenience of on-campus housing. Coming this Fall 2025. Learn more.

    Coming this Fall 2025. Learn more.

Meet our Faculty

Elise Muller
Elise Muller

Instructor for:

Elise Muller has been sculpting stone since 2001 and her large public sculptures can be found in Dorset, Fergus, and Kingsbrae Garden. Elise's granite sculpture 'Attunement' won the 2018/9 Canadian Sculpture Competition at Kingsbrae Garden in St. Andrews, NB. Elise has been teaching stone carving to both adults and children for 19 years, and enjoys nurturing her students' individual creativity. Elise lives and works at Stone Tree Studio in Muskoka with her partner, furniture maker Cirvan Hamilton. For More Information: @elisemuller_art | stonetreestudio.ca
Stephanie Rayner
Stephanie Rayner

Instructor for:

Stephanie Rayner is an artist, printmaker, international lecturer, art educator, and captivating storyteller. Her artworks, shown widely and collected by major art museums, deal with themes and issues relating to spirituality and science. In May of 2009 Stephanie was in China at the invitation of the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, China's foremost art school, to teach the professors and select post-doctoral students watercolour printmaking and a special course on universal meaning in the arts. She was also invited to give lectures on her artwork in several universities throughout mainland China. In November 2009, the Maine College of Art (Portland, Maine) did a special month long gallery show 'First Impressions' of Stephanie's and her students' watercolour monoprint works. Her latest artwork, the 30-foot-long Boat of Eternal Return, was highlighted on the cover of the winter edition of Exile ELQ Arts & Literary Magazine. ELQ also did an essay for the magazine and a YouTube video on Stephanie and the creation of the boat. The Boat of Eternal Return ran as a four-month-long solo show at PAMA, and the same year Stephanie was awarded The Ashley Fellowship by Trent University. She is the first visual artist to receive this award. Stephanie's ability to inspire creative responses within the individual takes her teaching well beyond technique and into the very heart of the art process. For More Information: stephanierayner.com | Youtube: ELQ Stephanie Rayner
Mathieu Grodet
Mathieu Grodet
Mathieu Grodet is a glassblower, flame worker and illustrator born in Orleans, France. Current work brings the past of glass together with themes of the present, using traditional techniques with a modern twist. Ideas around contradiction, power, duality and the absurdity of life are explored as he marries and reconstructs form, function and design with a unique style to provoke discussion. Recent workshops, lectures and classes delivered have included cities in China, Japan, Turkey, France, Canada and the US. His work is in private collections across Europe and North America and can be seen at the Corning Museum of Glass, the Art Institute of Chicago, and various galleries in Canada. For More Information: @mathieu_grodet_glass | mathieugrodetglass.com
Putzy Madronich
Putzy Madronich

Instructor for:

Putzy Madronich is an award-winning professional visual artist and educator. She studied at McMaster University, Fleming College, and Ecole France Langue Paris and has participated in international exhibitions. Working with outreach organizations (drug and alcohol addiction, survivors of cancer, sexual assault, brain injury, mental health, teens at risk, and the homeless) she delivers arts programming to promote healing and wellness. She has also been a consultant and artist educator for the Royal Conservatory. She works primarily in watercolour, mixed media, acrylic, collage and alcohol inks, but she also enjoys printmaking, painting floor cloths, encaustics, and jewellery making. Her work explodes with intense colour and is generously textured. Putzy's work is largely inspired by her travels in Europe, North Africa and South-East Asia. For More Information: @Artbyputzy
Lisa Barry
Lisa Barry

Instructor for:

Lisa Barry is a graduate of Sheridan College's Ceramics Program and has also achieved a BFA from the Alberta College of Art and Design. Lisa has a broad range of experience with various pottery techniques as well as kiln firing processes. An artist of note, she has exhibited nationally and continues to develop herself as an artist through workshops and learning opportunities. Lisa brings a passion and energy to her teaching that ensures a lively and creative atmosphere for her students. For More Information: @homesteadpottery | homesteadpottery.ca
Helen McCusker
Helen McCusker

Instructor for:

Helen McCusker is a graduate of the Sheridan College Illustration Program and has been a practicing artist for more than 40 years. A member of the Etobicoke Art Group, she has work in private collections, and exhibits in solo, juried and group exhibitions. For over 20 years, Helen has taught art classes throughout the GTA, specializing in drawing, figure drawing and painting, portraiture, and paper sculpture. Helen's teaching is based on a solid understanding of drawing and design principles and personal attention to each student. She is enthusiastic about helping students discover their potential and encouraging artistic exploration. For More Information: @helen mccusker | eaglewoodstudios.blogspot.ca
Jane Lewis
Jane Lewis

Instructor for:

Jane Lewis has been leading vocal groups since 2008, from "finding your voice" and "how to sing harmony by ear" workshops to various choirs, Circle Singing, and community singing events. She has been studying improvisational singing with Rhiannon, and during the pandemic, attending Musica do Circulo music improv training workshops online. As a singer-songwriter, she is often compared to Carole King, playing piano-based music that draws on her strength as a lyricist and singer. She performs most often with the folk duo Gathering Sparks (with Eve Goldberg), nominated for a 2014 Canadian Folk Music Award for Vocal Group of the Year. Jane has released two solo recordings, and Gathering Sparks released their newest album on Borealis Records in September 2019. For More Information: @janelewismusic | janelewis.ca
Fly Freeman
Fly Freeman
Fly Freeman trained as a sculptor in Scotland, where she started her career as a stone carver, carving everything from gargoyles to gravestones and large-scale public commissions in granite. A mid-career move to Canada led to a radical shift in her sculptural practice: carving has been joined by construction as a sculptural method, and wood and other media are now worked alongside the stone. www.flyfreeman.com
Saskia Wassing
Saskia Wassing

Instructor for:

Saskia Wassing is an artist trained in embroidery and weave at Glasgow School of Art, Scotland. She creates joyful textiles, inspired by her past experiences, observations and memories. Referencing her sketchbook drawings, Saskia works freely onto a textile ground. Embroidering by hand and by using a basic domestic sewing machine as her drawing tool, layering fabric and thread into colourful narratives. Saskia has exhibited her work extensively and been commissioned to design and produce custom furniture, textiles, embroidery and prototypes for individuals and industry. Saskia teaches to all ages and levels and is currently faculty in the textile department of Sheridan College. For More Information: @saskiawdesigns | saskiadesigns.com
Hope Thompson
Hope Thompson

Instructor for:

Hope Thompson is an award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter, most recently picking up best feature screenplay at Toronto's Female Eye Film Festival, with co-writer Patricia Chica. As a writer, Hope is passionate about crime and true crime genres. She has written extensively for the top-rated podcasts Crime Hub and Whereabouts Unknown. Her crime fiction has been published in anthologies, including in the Crime Writers of Canada's 2022 collection, Cold Canadian Crime. Her television credits include Iceland's Tulipop (Serious Kids) and The Fabulous Show with Faye and Fluffy (Wild Brain). She also wrote on two seasons of CBC's Baroness Von Sketch Show. Hope has two series projects in development. For More Information: @hopethompson70 | hopethompson.net
Heather Vollans
Heather Vollans

Instructor for:

Heather Vollans explored many pursuits - paper-mache sculpture, furniture restoration, acrylic and oil painting, quilting, collage, and decoupage until eventually mosaic became her passion. She has been teaching indoor and outdoor mosaic for a number of years in her studio and at venues including Mohawk College in Hamilton, Glenhyrst Gallery in Brantford, schools in various school boards, as well as locations in Mexico, her native Australia, and Ireland. Heather created public art for the Children's Memorial Gardens, Brantford and has spearheaded a number of community and large-scale school projects. In her studio practice, Heather's mosaic work is mostly abstract. The combination of textures, working either harmoniously or disparately, is what fires her interest. She finds the process of experimenting with materials to be the most enjoyable and important part of the process. The value of using discarded or found objects for art is an essential tool in her teaching and her art practice. For More Information: @heathervollans | dawningdecorstudio.com

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