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.
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Meet our Faculty
Gord Jones
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
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
Kirei Samuel
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Kirei Samuel's fascination with glass started purely by accident 25 years ago, when a friend gave her some scrap glass. For many years she travelled the Ontario art and craft show circuit and then, in 2009 she opened her studio/gallery which houses her one-of-a-kind pieces in jewellery, plates, bowls and artwork. In 2019 Kirei designed 550 pendants for the Women's Half Marathon in Wellington, ON. She also designed and built the bases for the pewter sculptures for the Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Toronto's annual theatre, dance and opera. She is happy to continue the Dora Award bases commission in 2023. Kirei has been a member of the PEC Studio Tour for the last 14 years.
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
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
Jan Anderson
Jan Anderson became a committed fabric artist-quilter after taking her first course at the Haliburton School of Art + Design. After experimenting and creating with glass, wood, stone, paper and wire, she is addicted to the texture, diversity and colour of textiles. Jan manipulates wax, wool rovings, rust, paint, dye, pigment, canvas, cotton, origami, embellishments, and more to produce unique wall hangings. She has over seventeen years of teaching experience at colleges and universities in Ontario and is recognized for her passion, creativity and innovation, touched by humour and motivation. For More Information: bytheriverstudio.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
Toni Caldarone
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Toni Caldarone has been a 'maker' throughout her life, inspired by natural found and recycled objects. Having had a career in the corporate world, she stayed in touch with art through classes at Toronto School of Art, AGO, HSAD and Learn4Life. Downsizing brought Toni back to the creative world where she describes herself as a self-taught, mixed-media expressive artist. Her life's journey, her enthusiasm and her artistic vision have provided the opportunity to translate her skills into hands-on experiences with her students for nearly twenty years. Toni has shown work through exhibitions as well as private and event sales. She loves to encourage creativity through positive experiences in a supportive atmosphere.
Todd Jeffrey Ellis
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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
Nancy Newman
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Nancy Newman is an artist, teacher and juror. She is a Director of the Toronto Watercolour Society. Nancy has exhibited her work in many solo and juried shows including TWS Aquavision, International Watercolour Society Canada (IWS), Art Aurora, Society of York Region Artists (SOYRA) and Blue Mountain Foundation of the Arts (BMFA). She has received several first place, award of merit, honourable mention and people's choice awards. A guest instructor for many art societies, she has taught at the Aurora Cultural Centre and the Blue Mountain School of Landscape Painting. Nancy is a long-time instructor at Haliburton School of Art and Design. Recently, she has been sharing her expertise and support via Zoom courses and workshops. For More Information: @nancynewmanart | nancynewmanart.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