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-
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 -
HSAD Continuing Education Calendar
We offer the creative experience you’ve been searching for. View our full range of art and design courses and find what ignites your passion.
HSAD Continuing Education Calendar
Art Certificates
Diploma Programs
Continuing Education
Centre for Making
Haliburton Accommodations
Diploma Program
Post Graduate Programs
Meet our Faculty
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
Debra Krakow
Debra Krakow is an artist and architect whose paintings express her deep connection to nature, as seen through the lens of a former urbanite. Her artistic practice has evolved through drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, fibre arts, and ceramics. She paints in layers to create an evocative surface. Debra's work has a quiet energy - a delicate balance between fluidity and structure, transparency and solidity, mystery and clarity. She loves sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm with her students. Galleries in Prince Edward County, and Ottawa represent her work. www.debrakrakow.com
Brenna MacCrimmon
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Brenna MacCrimmon, based in Toronto, Canada, has been studying and performing the music of Turkey and the Balkans for decades and has looked for ways to blend and integrate it into different milieux. She has worked abroad with Selim Sesler and Kars?lama (trad Turkish Roma), Muammer Ketenco?lu (trad Balkan) and experimental rock group Baba Zula. She has also toured across Europe with Balkan beat DJ Shantel and the Bucovina Club Orkestra. She has recorded with the above musicians and has appeared as a guest on many diverse albums and film soundtracks in Canada, the US and Europe. She is a featured performer in Crossing the Bridge, Fatih Ak?n?s 2005 documentary of the Istanbul music scene. In 2010, she found herself in Moscow as a member of the cast of Bobble with Bobby McFerrin. Her theatre work includes musical director of the award-winning Volcano production of Goodness. In 2019 she created and directed music for the Soulpepper production of Sina Gilani?s recreation of Wedding at Aulis. She has delved into the roots of jazz and blues with late pianist Bill Westcott as the Ragtime Orioles ? a connection forged by their mutual love of ukuleles. In addition to singing with Juno nominated vocal quartet Turkwaz, she plays with Greco Turkish ensemble Meltemi, travels widely to teach and perform. Recent collaborations include musical direction for MabelleArts Walk with Amal for Luminato 2023 and Amsterdam Klezmer Band?s 2024 recording Bomba Pop with Dunklebunt. For More Information: greengoatmusic.ca
Miranda Britton
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Miranda Britton is a jeweller, multi-disciplinary artist and gallery owner based in Muskoka, Ontario. As a jeweller, Miranda creates pieces that explore the multitude of ways that humans converge with the natural world. Using abstracted and simplified representations of organic motifs, her pieces celebrate many facets of the natural world, reminding the wearer of their place within the natural order of things. Together with her father, Miranda opened the Britton Gallery in Bracebridge in late 2019 and the experience has re-invigorated her love of art in its many forms.For More Information: @mirandabritton | mirandabritton.com
Margot Miller
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Margot Miller , recipient of a Design Canada Award, is an Honours Graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design University, (College Medal Winner) and a graduate the Ecotourism Management Program at Fleming College. She has exhibited at numerous galleries and shows including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Film Board of Canada, and the Ontario Crafts Council. As a lecturer and instructor in the arts and the business of art, she has taught at Sheridan College, St. Lawrence College, Queen's University and Fleming College. For many years Margot has taught workshops, designed and sold printed clothing, yardage, floor cloths and furniture from her shop and studio. In 2018 she was awarded her second Township Community Grant to fund the Rockport Spring Art Fair and Dry-Stone Wall Event-Celebrating Contemporary and Traditional Heritage Arts. Her work has sold in shows and stores in Canada and the US. She has travelled extensively in the Far East, documenting traditional textile techniques, and has worked as a designer for a British and Canadian company in India. Recently she has organized cultural walking tours, titled "Walk the Walls" to destinations such as Scotland (Mull, Iona, Orkneys), Ireland, England, Mallorca and Menorca with the organization Dry Stone Walls Across Canada. For More Information: margotmiller-summerhouse.com
Janine Marson
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Janine Marson is a graduate of the Design Art Program at Georgian College and received a BFA from the University of Guelph. Her 30-year career has established a strong sense of direction, garnered several exhibitions and awards, and has provided the opportunity to influence hundreds of students with her calm, encouraging spirit. Janine loves to inspire others with art, teaching private art lessons in person and online via ZOOM. A trained, professional picture framer, she has provided her services with a keen eye for colour and design for over 25 years. Her commission work includes painting on a canoe for the Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and painting a paddle for the Algonquin Outfitters Paddle Art Contest. She is one of the muralists for The Group of Seven Outdoor Gallery in Huntsville and has painted six murals to date. Janine received a Woman of Distinction Award for Arts, Culture & Creativity in 2018. For More Information: @janinemarsonartmuskoka | janinemarsonart.ca
Chris Bahry
Chris Bahry has carried his sensibilities and experiences from his mentorship under Bruce Mau in the world of print, branding, product, video and architectural design into motion design and filmmaking. Over the course of his creative career, Chris has actively sought out beauty and meaning in the places where the visual arts and sciences converge. In 2009, Chris and his longtime collaborator Alexandre Torres met EP Kate Bate and founded Toronto-based design and animation studio Tendril. Currently Tendril is represented in the US by Blacklist, in Canada by Hesty Reps and in Europe by Passion Pictures. Tendril Design + Animation Inc. is a design and animation studio with roots in Brazil and Canada, where a diverse group of directors, designers, and artists come together to push the boundaries of the visual storytelling experience, employing an always evolving kit of styles and techniques. Our vision is to rediscover the everyday through the filter of our imaginations. To inspire and be inspired.
Hope Thompson
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Hope Thompson is an award-winning ?lmmaker 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 ?ction 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
Julie Gemuend
Julie Gemuend is a Canadian artist. She studied visual arts with an emphasis on photography and video at Brock University as well as Ryerson University, where she received her Master of Fine Arts. Her practice is aligned with a number of intersecting movements that emerged in the 1960s, including body art, performance-based video, and land art. Julie employs her body to speculate on theories concerning the self, space and the relationship between interior and exterior landscapes. She has been the recipient of various notable awards and grants and exhibits her work both nationally and internationally.
April Gates
April Gates is a full time ceramic artist and educator. After colourful and long meanderings in travel, work and education, she finally answered the call to study ceramics. A lifelong background in image making married a concern for function and ritual ~ and Blackbird Pottery was born. April's graphic and illustrative work has been nationally exhibited, collected and published. Her current obsession is to marvel the endless potential of the ceramic surface. As a facilitator, April is passionate about helping others to find their voice through artistic explorations. www.blackbirdpottery.ca
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