Leslie Ashton (she/her)
I am a visual artist and puppeteer. I’ve had the honour to work with students from ages 3 – 80 years old for more than 15 years. For me, art is the best way to share our stories, understand each other, and learn about our world. Not only do I love to hear students’ stories and share my own, they inspire me to introduce varied mediums to help them to tell their tales. I‘ve collaborated with students using paint, photography, sculpture, puppetry, collage and textiles. The scale of our projects range from smaller very personal work to large group murals. When I work with a class, I bring my curiosity, sense of humour, energy and a willingness to meet students where they are right now. At the moment I’m working on a personal project to draw every person in Toronto. I only have about 2.9 million to go.
Nancy Ciccone (she/her)
Lead Artist
I am a visual artist and an artist educator. For over 20 years I have worked to empower students to use their unique voice in exploration and celebration of their world. Apart from facilitating large scale murals and designing my own line of jewellery, I often find myself consulting on other projects across the creative spectrum. I am always ready to jump in and collaborate with students and other artists, helping them realize their vision is the synergy at the heart of my creative practice. Outside of my artistic pursuits, travel, good books and baked goods are what bring me joy.
Jess Devitt (she/they)
I am a visual artist, educator and curatorial graduate based in Tkaronto. I have experience working with community through the arts offering instructional workshops for a range of mediums and art making techniques that range from watercolour, acrylic, oil, image transfer, charcoal, resin, jewellery, bookbinding, soft and oil pastels, knitting, sustainable art practices, and offer instruction in live modelling, portraiture and art theory. My goal as an arts educator and mentor is to create opportunities for collaboration and find ways of creating art and community across disciplines, techniques and media. My approach to art making focuses on finding new ways to create, teach and learn from the artists and inspirations around me.
Taya Kozak-Goebel (she/her)
I’ve been an artist-educator for the last 13 years and I truly love what I do. I consider myself a very versatile and intuitive artist who brings my diverse skills and enthusiasm into the classroom. My goal is to encourage and foster an understanding that everyone can be creative and instill a deep love of the arts in those I work with. I teach in-class workshops, and create group murals and large-scale installations for schools and communities. I enjoy working across many disciplines, including fine art, mosaics, printmaking, urban art, sculpture, textiles, stop-motion animation, set design and anything that sparks imagination! I’ve had the pleasure of working in many schools across the GTA.
Ben Lee (he/him)
I have worked as a music and creative arts educator for the past 8 years, developing projects with a wide variety of participants including people in marginalized communities and people with special needs. Puppetry, stage performance, and music are all areas of my training and craft and in each of those disciplines; I am most passionate about improvisation! When working with participants, I love drawing from people’s stories and experiences, developing art that is personal to each individual and giving participants full agency over how they express themselves. In the classroom, fun and spontaneity play a huge role in engaging with students and whether it’s music, visual art, or theatre, I have found playfulness to be the best catalyst for bringing out the best in students. Growing up, I watched far too many cartoons and the Muppets taught me everything I know about life.
Andrea Piller (she/her)
I have a vocation sideline to my impassioned ceramic studio practice and land loving gardening habit. That is to say, I am a visual artist and artist educator, ….which also makes me believe I am somewhat of a ‘Wonderwoman’.
I have special powers. Years and years of experience in the arts and training about visual arts has given me power to share what I know…for the arts.
To engage minds and hearts through lines and shapes and colours in a mixture of media I help bring meaning and knowledge to classrooms and communities. This sharing is exciting, challenging and always new.
A grade five student uses the text…”LISTEN” across their composition to express so much when it is attached to their study of social justice.
Ontario grade five curriculum: social studies check, language arts check
Oh, and the science of simultaneous contrast in colour theory, check.
Or picture in your mind 10 year old Brandon knitting….
and across from them at a canvas sits 110 year old Kitty, making pompoms.
Their conversations will be what I remember. Pretty fascinating to facilitate this multi age level project. Kitty’s secret to a long life: “Do what you love.”