Introducing the AIRS Board of Directors

Wendy Chang has served as the first director of Rennie Collection since 2006 and became the founding director of Rennie Museum in 2009. Prior to her current position, she spent fifteen years working extensively with leading institutions and collections worldwide as managing director of a limited editions program and a Los Angeles based gallery representing a roster of globally active artists. Currently she serves on the Board of Trustees for the Association of Art Museum Curators and its associate Foundation. Wendy has been an active supporter of AIRS Program from early in its conception, most recently serving on its advisory committee and now as a member of the board.

Candice Halls-Howcroft, is a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw Nation, weaver, storyteller, poet and educator.  Halls-Howcroft is a lead artist for the Royal Conservatory’s Learning Through the Arts program and teaches essential skills at the Native Education College in Vancouver. Candice has supported AIRS program for many years, providing program consultation and professional development opportunities for artists and  AIRS lead teachers.  She is pleased to serve as an Indigenous Consultant on the AIRS program society board, to uphold Indigenous protocols, centre Indigenous knowledge and direct board policies and practices towards reconciliation.  

Hannah Jickling is originally from the Yukon and is currently based in Vancouver, on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̍əm, Skwxwú7mesh and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ territories. Atypical forms of distribution, entrepreneurial scheming and audience-seeking are important strategies for supporting and disseminating her work which is (most often) based in public practice, performance and artists' multiples. She frequently collaborates with her partner Reed H. Reed and in each of their projects, collaboration is a working process from which artwork emerges. In a recent series of projects with children, the artists have been exploring the ‘contact high’ intrinsic to collective work. Big Rock Candy Mountain, their ongoing platform for research and production, has been established at Queen Alexandra Elementary School since 2015.

Co-founder of AIRS program in 2015, Colleen has been an educator in the public elementary school system for over 25 years.  Over her career she has collaborated extensively with artists, and advocates for the role and value of the arts in education as central for children’s wellbeing, and social emotional and intellectual development.  In 2018, Colleen was shortlisted for the SFU Cmolik Award for teaching innovation for the conception and establishment of the AIRS program.

Alejandro Ruiz-Ramirez is an Emily Carr University graduate and a practicing visual and community engaged artist who resides in Vancouver, British Columbia. Alejandro has worked with AIRS as an artist-in-residence for the past four years. They see AIRS as a pathway to deliver meaningful arts education through critical art processes. Alejandro has many years' experiences in supporting local nonprofit education and health organizations. Alejandro is currently studying at UBC in the department of education and is excited about continuing to support the AIRS program as one of the founding directors on the AIRS program society Board.

Dorothy is a retired principal with over 32 years of teaching and administration experience with the Vancouver School Board.  She has served in schools located in some of the most diverse neighbourhoods in the city. Dorothy has seen the difference the arts have made in student lives, in social emotional wellbeing, giving students a voice and affirming their self-worth.  She has advocated for the AIRS program within the district, both as a principal and member of the AIRS Advisory Board, before accepting the position of chair of the board when it became a society.