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.
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-
Visual and Creative Arts
Train like an artist and build a powerful foundation in visual art. No matter your medium, this diploma helps you grow your skills and perspective with hands-on studio learning.
Visual and Creative Arts -
March Break Creative Adventure Starts Soon!
Courses for kids and teens in ceramics, printmaking, digital art and more. Learn new skills and make something amazing.
March Break Creative Adventure Starts Soon! -
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. Learn more about your future accommodations in Haliburton.
Coming this Fall 2025. Learn more.
Art Certificates
Diploma Programs
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Haliburton Accommodations
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Meet our Faculty
Gord Jones
Instructor for:
Gord Jones is a watercolour artist residing in the Algonquin Highlands. The surrounding landscape in Haliburton is a great source of inspiration for most of his paintings. He interprets the essence of his chosen subject rather than producing detailed likenesses of actual places. Watercolour allows Gord to transfer the light and shadow that he photographs in real life to the painting. With a fluidity of colours, Gord combines impressionistic strokes and semi-abstract techniques to elicit memories of place and time in his transparent watercolour landscapes. Gord is an elected member of the CSPWC and the SCA. For More Information: watercoloursbygordjones.com
Albert Cote
Instructor for:
Albert Cote graduated from Brock University with BA degrees in Visual Arts and Education. His natural artistic abilities, imagination, visual arts background, and his experience in operating a quilt store for many years has served as a starting point for a very successful longarm and fibre arts career. He has many commissioned pieces in the Niagara area as well as throughout Canada and the US. His innovative classes and trunk shows are an attraction for many people in the quilting world. For More Information: imaginationtextile.com
Michael Flaherty
Micheal Flaherty was born in St. John's and continues to call Newfoundland his home, while his work, research and studies in ceramics have taken him across Canada and beyond. He earned a diploma in Visual Arts from College of the North Atlantic, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from NSCAD University, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Regina. Michael has previously taught sculpture and ceramics at NSCAD, University of Regina and Memorial University of Newfoundland, and worked as ceramics technician at Red Deer College. Spanning the past fifteen years, Michael's studio practice has explored diverse themes including politics in art, interdisciplinary craft, and human and natural geography. In 2011 Flaherty's work was recognized when he was a semi-finalist for the prestigious Sobey Art Award. Flaherty was a finalist for the RBC Peoples' Choice award and won the Large Year Award from Visual Artists Newfoundland and Labrador in 2013.
Rosemary Vander Breggen
Instructor for:
Rosemary Vander Breggen is an Honours graduate of Studio Process Advancement at Fleming College and was the first Reclaim Resident Artist at HSAD in 2015. She spent seven years at Dundas Valley School of Art in Advanced Studio in Fine Art and also attended Sheridan College School of Design. Rosemary exhibits widely and is a published artist with work in international, corporate and private collections. She works primarily in the mediums of collage and paint, to which she has recently added sculpture and photography. For More Information: @rosemarysart
Lisa Barry
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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
Hope Thompson
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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
Paulus Tjiang
Paulus Tjiang graduated from Ontario College of Art in 1988 and continued his studies both at Pilchuk Glass School and as a resident at the Harbourfront Craft Studio until 1989. Utilizing primarily Venetian techniques with remarkable skill, he brings intense colour, precise detail, and an elegant disposition to his work. Paulus owns and operates Frantic Farms Clay and Glass gallery in Warkworth, ON. www.franticfarms.com.
Victoria Wallace
Instructor for:
Victoria Wallace is an artist-educator, born and raised in Toronto. For over 25 years she operated a successful mural and specialty paint finish company in Toronto which included work for film, television, commercials, schools, businesses and countless private residences. She has shown her paintings in galleries, art festivals and group and solo exhibitions across Ontario for over 4 decades. Her work is held in private collections across Canada, the US, and Europe. Victoria is an elected member of the Ontario Society of Artists, the Society of Canadian Artists, an active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and a regular on the Kawartha Autumn Studio Tour. She is a Golden Artist Educator for Golden Artist Colors and an R&F Certified Encaustic Instructor with R&F Handmade Paints. In addition to the Haliburton School of Art and Design, Victoria has taught at Sir Sandford Fleming College (Peterborough), Lakefield College, Station Gallery (Whitby), the York Artists' Guild (Toronto), Humber College Assembly Hall (Toronto), the Art Gallery of Peterborough, the Art School of Peterborough, with GoBoomerang (online) and many other public and private arts and educational institutions. For More Information: victoria-wallace.com
Susan Watson Ellis
Instructor for:
Susan Watson Ellis followed graduation from the University of Toronto with an apprenticeship to a German Goldsmith. In 1981, she opened Paradigm Designs, creating handcrafted jewellery that sold across Canada. Her work won recognition in 2000 as part of the Craft Ontario's "Looking Forward" exhibition, which was curated by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England and represented contemporary Canadian craft. She was also chosen to be part of their "Craft in the Making II" exhibition in 2003, their juried exhibition "Ontario Craft '07", and to be one of eight jewellers chosen to be part of their "8 X 10 Jewellery" exhibition series in 2012. Her work is part of the permanent contemporary Canadian silver collection at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre in Guelph, Ontario and is available from her studio in Haliburton, at the Toronto One of a Kind Shows, the Craft Ontario Shop, and online. For More Information: @paradigmjewellery | paradigmjewellery.com
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
Todd Jeffrey Ellis
Instructor for:
Todd Jeffrey Ellis received an arts diploma from Niagara College in 1970 and completed his degree at OCADU, attaining his Bachelor of Design. He has worked extensively in various areas of the arts: teaching, directing, and set, prop, and furniture designing. His love of metalwork took hold when he discovered chasing, repousse, and the moving of metal in 1995. Since that time he has studied at OCAD U, George Brown College, the Haliburton School of Art + Design and through extensive studies with such renowned masters as Lois Etherington Betteridge, Brian Clarke, Charles Lewton Brain, and Don Stuart. In 2000 Jeffrey was awarded 'Best Holloware Award' in the Metal Arts Guild's 'Under Glass' Exhibition. In 2003 he participated in a group exhibition at Metalurge in Toronto, which showcased his expertise in the decorative form. He has taught at Niagara College, York University, Toronto Teacher's College, and the Haliburton School of Art + Design, and served on the executive of the Metal Arts Guild of Canada for seven years. In 2008 he was published in 500 Metal Vessels. In 2010 he had an exhibition with Susan Watson Ellis at the Ontario Craft Council Gallery, and Jeffrey and Susan created the window display for the Guild Show during the 2010 Film Festival. For More Information: silversmith.ca