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!
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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
Continuing Education
Centre for Making
Haliburton Accommodations
Diploma Program
Post Graduate Programs
Meet our Faculty
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
Stephanie Rayner
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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
Jessica Steinhauser
Jessica Steinhauser is a Master potter on the wheel and continues to share her talents to students at the Haliburton School of Art + Design. Jessica's passion for the Kachelofen (wood-burning ceramic stoves) has had her travelling to clients worldwide installing over forty custom designs for the past ten years. She has won a major award at the Masonry Heater Association of North America's annual design/build contest for 8 consecutive years. Recent honours include: solo exhibition at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery (2014); Women of Distinction Lifetime Achievement Award (2016); winner of the 40th Anniversary Ontario Crafts Council Award (2016). Jessica is a graduate of the State school for Art and Design and the State School for Ceramics in Germany and resides in Guelph, Ontario. http://www.facebook.com/KachelofenArt
Elise Muller
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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
Helen McCusker
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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
Gord Jones
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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
Ken Murray
Ken Murray is a novelist, playwright, short story writer, and essayist. In 2015, Globe and Mail called Ken's novel, Eulogy, a "powerful, poignant debut." In 2017, Ken's adaptation of his short story The Exception was performed at the Roy Bonisteel Studio in the Old Church Theatre. His work has appeared in Prairie Fire, Globe and Mail, Mendacity Review, Brooklyn Rail, Ottawa Citizen, Canadian Business, and Maclean's. Since 2009, he has taught creative writing at the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies and has taught at Haliburton School of Art & Design since 2014. While earning his MFA at The New School in New York City, Ken also trained as a teaching artist with Community Word Project and taught with the organization Poets House. For More Information: kenmurray.ca
Susan Watson Ellis
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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
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.
Tanya Lyons
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
Shannon Kennedy
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Shannon Kennedy has been exploring the cutting edge of design using digital manufacturing technologies like 3D printing for years, integrating the skills of the craft artist and the technologies of manufacturing. 3D modelling, rapid prototyping, and 3D printing advanced techniques have created a new way for her to realize her designs as a jeweller. She graduated in 1996 from the Ontario College of Art and Design and furthered her jewellery making skills by attending George Brown College's Jewellery Art Program. She is an award-winning designer, a Saul Bell finalist, and published PMC artist. In recognition of her PMC work, she was invited to give a PMC demonstration at the SNAG Conference in Toronto, 2013. Shannon is a passionate instructor at several colleges and galleries, as well as at her studio. She and her partner are currently running their own jewellery business, Cynosure Jewelry. For More Information: @cynosurej | cynosure-jewelry.com