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
  • 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

Meet our Faculty

Joanna Turlej
Joanna Turlej
Joanna Turlej graduated from OCAD University with an Honours degree and an Award of Excellence, followed by 25 years working as a fine artist and exploring various media. Since 2014 she has focused on paper collage, for which she has received numerous awards. Joanna has participated in Art Monaco, Human Rights, #H2O Exhibition, sponsored by UNESCO in Italy, and three times in The Artist Project, Toronto. She exhibits in juried exhibitions in Ontario and internationally and is an elected life member and President of CFS (Colour and Form Society). www.joannaturlej.com
Tanya Lyons
Tanya Lyons

Instructor for:

Tanya Lyons graduated with honours from the Sheridan College glass program. She also studied at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland, The Atlin Art Centre in BC, and the Toyama Institute of Glass Art in Japan. She taught glass at Sheridan College for four years, was a resident at the Harbourfront Centre as well as volunteering on the Board of Directors for the Glass Art Association of Canada. After 14 years in Quebec, Tanya has moved back to her hometown community to raise her daughter and continue her sculptural work with glass. Reflecting her passion for helping people find their way, she continues to teach in the glass program at the Haliburton School of Art + Design. She is the Co-Coordinator of the Madawaska Valley Studio Tour and a collaborating artist with the Ottawa Valley Community Arts organization. Tanya has always been a gatherer, collecting and taking in, objects, moments and memories. She uses glass in combination with natural and found objects to express and reflect her experiences, thoughts and questions about the world we live in and who we are. Her work has been exhibited throughout North America, Europe and Japan and is in many private and public collections including the Musee National des Beau-arts du Quebec. www.tanyalyons.ca
John Anderson
John Anderson
John Anderson is an enthusiastic studio and plein air painter, working in oils and acrylics. His excitement about the language and process of painting, accompanied with an element of creative joy is infectious. As a full-time artist and instructor, John is committed to assisting, mentoring and instructing here in Canada, in Provence, and in Tuscany. As a young boy, his first major influences were the paintings of Andrew Wyeth and later meeting A Y Jackson, he was inspired to absorb the landscape tradition of Tom Thomson and members of The Group of Seven. Many more artists have become the influence from which he has drawn the building blocks of his craft. The focus of much of John's work is the light story, as he describes it. His approach is a study in how the character of light movement creates the elements of composition in a pathway of light as it touches surfaces, creating shapes in value and colour from which to build an engaging surface in paint. John is represented by The Ethel Curry Gallery in Haliburton, Double Doors Gallery in Barrie, The Art Bank Collective in Clarksburg, as well as many guest appearances in other galleries. www.johndvidanderson.ca Instagram: @jdapainter
Jeremy Laing
Jeremy Laing
Jeremy Laing spent his childhood on an army base in Germany. He learned to sew at age 13 by watching his mother, and has been making clothes ever since. Jeremy's self-taught method, which combines organic and geometric approaches to pattern making and construction, was honed while studying in Toronto, on exchange at Westminster University in London, and through an apprenticeship with Alexander McQueen. Following his apprenticeship, Jeremy worked freelance developing showpieces for five of McQueen's collections, demonstrating his strength in innovative pattern making, garment construction, and the use of textile to create form. In 2011, Jeremy was a finalist for the prestigious ANDAM Fashion Award. In Jeremy's view, garments are a sum of parts, all functioning in relation to one another and, ultimately, to the body. His collections often stem from his elaborations on simple principles of construction and form, drawing simultaneously from couture and tailoring traditions. Jeremy currently lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
Lesley McInally
Lesley McInally
Lesley McInally earned her Bachelor of Design Honours Degree in Ceramics and Printmaking at Duncan of Jordanstone, Dundee University in Scotland. Her artistic journey began managing Pitlochry Pottery in the highlands of Scotland followed by creating ceramic props for the film industry and decorative ceramics for galleries throughout the UK. In 2004, Lesley embarked on a new chapter by immigrating to Canada, where she established her studio practice in Cookstown, Ontario. Here, she delved deeper into her craft, honing her skills in unique stretched slab forms, paperclay techniques, hand building and captivating surface treatments. Leveraging her knowledge in printmaking, she infused her ideas onto clay creating highly tactile surfaces, using slips and underglazes. She has taught her techniques at various ceramic educational institutions and has recently began teaching online workshops. Lesley is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and grants and continues to exhibit nationally and internationally.For More Information: @lesleymcinallyceramics | lesleymcinally.com
Amanda McCavour
Amanda McCavour
Amanda McCavour works with stitch to create large-scale embroidered installations. Through an exploration of line and its 2D and 3D implications, stitch is used in her artwork to explore various concepts such as connections to home, the fibres of the body, and more formal considerations of thread's accumulative presence. Amanda holds a BFA from York University where she studied drawing, and in May 2014 she completed her MFA in Fibers and Material Studies at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA. She shows her work in galleries nationally and internationally with solo and two-person exhibitions in 2018 in Annapolis Royal (Nova Scotia, Canada), Stratford (Ontario, Canada), Tulsa (Oklahoma, USA), Edmonton (Alberta, Canada), Antigonish (Nova Scotia, Canada) and Ottawa (Ontario, Canada). She has recently completed residencies at Harbourfront Centre's Textile Studio in Toronto, at Maison des Metiers D'art de Quebec in Quebec City, and the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture in Dawson City, Yukon. She has received numerous awards and scholarships from The Canada Council for the Arts, The Ontario Arts Council, The Toronto Arts Council, The Handweavers and Spinners Guild of America, Craft Ontario, The Ontario Society of Artists, The Surface Design Association and The Embroiderers Guild of America.
Rene Petitjean
Rene Petitjean

Instructor for:

Rene Petitjean has been a maker of objects for more than 40 years. After attending Sheridan College, he bought Robin Hopper's Hillsdale, Ontario studio in 1975 and began a reduction-fired line of pottery, selling to stores throughout North America. Moving to Creemore in 1979, the business expanded to include a selection of salt-glazed pottery sold under the Bowerman's Hollow logo. In the late 1980's Rene developed a fascination for wrought iron, and eventually left the ceramics field and began to design and build architectural iron. Many of his projects have been large in scope and have taken over a year to complete. Currently, he takes commissions from selected architects, builders and interior designers. In 1998 he assisted with the design of the Haliburton School of Art + Design's Artist Blacksmith Certificate Program, of which he is a faculty member. Rene also teaches in the Ceramics Certificate Program.For More Information: renepetitjean.com
Paulus Tjiang
Paulus Tjiang

Instructor for:

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.
Dagmar Kovar
Dagmar Kovar
Dagmar Kovar works primarily in fibres and drawing. With fibers, she creates sculptural works, hangings, and installations of various sizes, spanning from palm size sculpture to room installations. In drawing, she explores roots of creativity and the human mind. With her work, Dagmar explores how we connect to the world. Since 2012 she has focused primarily on the exploration of sources of creativity through the technique of "drawing with intuition", collecting valuable content and experiences, sharing these nearly continuously since then with students of widely various backgrounds, from novices to practicing artists. Dagmar has exhibited across Canada, the US, Europe, and China; received a number of government grants in support of her work; and her work is represented in private and public collections. For more than a decade, she has been teaching various art techniques as well as giving lectures and presentations on topics of creativity and connections with materials and methods. www.dagmarkovar.com
Brenna MacCrimmon
Brenna MacCrimmon

Instructor for:

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
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

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