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
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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
Rose Pearson
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Rose Pearson earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from York University, majoring in painting and drawing. She went on to receive her education degree and has over 30 years of experience teaching art in both the public school system in Alberta and Ontario, privately from her studio in Haliburton County and for the Haliburton School of Art + Design. Rose is the coordinator of the Visual and Creative Arts diploma at Fleming College. In addition to creating bodies of work for public gallery exhibitions, she is a member of the Haliburton Highlands Studio Tour. For More Information: rosepearson.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
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
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
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
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.
Rosemary Vander Breggen
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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
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.
Margaret Ferraro
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Margaret Ferraro work has been described as Tom Thomson on amphetamines. She takes that as a compliment. Margaret is an artist and teacher, specializing in pastel, life drawing and plein air painting workshops. The two disciplines of life drawing and pastel combine what she loves, drawing and the spontaneous use of colour. Working en plein air, she is at home in the woods and in nature. For thirty years she has been teaching workshops. For decades she had a studio in Ottawa but in 2017 moved north of Toronto to the Georgian Bay region. She published her first book in 2009, A Time to Dance. And in 2017, she was named Master pastellist-EM by the Pastel Artist of Canada. Her work has been shown in many National and International Art Exhibitions, including the Pastel Society of America (National Arts Club, NYC), The Pastel Artists of Canada (Toronto, Etobicoke, Vancouver and many other locations), and the Pastel Society of Eastern Canada, which exhibits out of Montreal. She has also exhibited in commercial galleries, including her own studio gallery. For More Information: margaretferraro.com
Jane Lewis
Instructor for:
Jane Lewis has been leading vocal groups since 2008, from "finding your voice" and "how to sing harmony by ear" workshops to various choirs, Circle Singing, and community singing events. She has been studying improvisational singing with Rhiannon, and during the pandemic, attending Musica do Circulo music improv training workshops online. As a singer-songwriter, she is often compared to Carole King, playing piano-based music that draws on her strength as a lyricist and singer. She performs most often with the folk duo Gathering Sparks (with Eve Goldberg), nominated for a 2014 Canadian Folk Music Award for Vocal Group of the Year. Jane has released two solo recordings, and Gathering Sparks released their newest album on Borealis Records in September 2019. For More Information: @janelewismusic | janelewis.ca