Airs artists 2022/23

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Maggie has been serving the community with inspired programs and workshops for all ages for over 30 years. She is a full-time artist who teaches across Canada and whose.practice is influenced by the Reggio Emilia philosophy.  She is a founding member of the Arts and Play Society, an organization launched as a non-traditional art education consulting practice.

Maggie encourages a strong bond between parents, community, and children as what forges  quality, well-rounded learning experiences. This strong foundation will support our children as they continue moving forward in their education to become future citizens. Maggie believes Art is essential to life in our communities. She is passionate about art education and strives to support and share her values. 

Maggie uses Art to promote well-being and create a space for social connection. She is an active member of the Expressive Arts Therapy Association and Holistic Arts Based Program facilitator. In addition, Maggie recently joined Nature Kids BC to promote eco-literacy and an inspired appreciation of the natural world. She is also a contributor to a book: Beautiful Stuff 2nd Edition: Beautiful stuff from Nature (Edited by Cathy W. Topal and Lella Gandini).

Nellie Gossen is an interdisciplinary artist based on the unceded territories of the Musqueum, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh first nations. Working through the media of fashion, costume, textiles and performance, Nellie uses clothing as a tool to think and feel through social systems. Considering the many truths of industrial labor and consumption, her work explores the material of mainstream fashion as a vehicle for study, spaciousness, social action, rigorous love practice and phenomenological inquiry. Drawing on one background in fashion design and another in religious studies, Nellie is particularly interested in the space that is created when clothing and contemplative practices meet.

Nellie has presented her work at Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz (Berlin), Altes Finanzamt (Berlin) and Ku’damm Karree (Berlin). As a costume designer and textile collaborator, Nellie has worked with artists such as Nancy Tam, Steven Hill, Francesca Frewer, Erika Mitsuhashi, Alexa Mardon, Elissa Hanson and Lexi Vajda. Nellie holds degrees in Fashion Design from Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee, as well as in Religion, Literature and the Arts, from the University of British Columbia. She is currently studying contemplative end of life care with the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

Susan is an educator with over 20 years of experience (Canada, USA, Switzerland).At the UN School in New York Susan was inspired  to develop integrated arts programs that encourage dialogue. At York University (Toronto), Susan worked as a course director with teacher candidates in the Faculty of Education. 

Susan’s most recent workshops are designed to address the important work of teaching visual literacy.  Students engage in creating photos with the use of DSLR cameras. Through dialogue Students consider the relevance of responsible publishing and the role students play in shaping online culture. Central to the learning experience is the notion of perspective taking both through the lens and in discussion. Through her teaching, Susan encourages  students to take time to see through a lens and discover beauty in the ordinary.

Rebecca is a community-engaged artist, author and educator. She received a MFA from the Tufts University/SMFA program in Boston. She has taught photography and photojournalism courses at several universities. After completing an undergraduate degree in Psychology, Rebecca studied documentary photography at the International Center of Photography in NYC.  She began working as a newspaper photographer in the 1990s and continues to do freelance work. However, in recent years Rebecca has become involved in the use of photography for pedagogical documentation in early childhood and primary school settings. She is currently engaged in graduate work with the Faculty of Education at SFU.  Rebecca has been working with AIRS since 2017, bringing experiences with nature and wonder into Vancouver public schools. In both her own art practice as well as her studio work with children, she seeks to create spaces in which dialogue and artistic modes of expression can flourish.

Reed Jackson (BFA Film Hons 2017, SFU) is a queer filmmaker/soundmaker/educator on stolen, occupied, unceded səl̓ilwətaɁɬ, Skwxwú7mesh, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm lands. Their work is generated from an endless stream of hungry questions. Recurring themes include ecological intersubjectivity, myth & magic, and the trouble of having and sharing a body. 

Kellen takes an experimental approach to materials, drawing from experimental analogue film traditions and a childhood of making potions in the mud. In their teaching, they are working toward models of collaboration that embrace vulnerability, passion, and curiosity, as opposed to emphasizing technical proficiency. 

Kellen’s approach to facilitation comes from a background in theatre, nurtured by liberatory problem-solving pedagogy. They fully embrace clown logic -- non-linearity, non-rationality, and taking the art of play very seriously! Kellen works to enable and encourage kids to engage with big questions from exactly where they’re at, emphasizing that there are no “right answers” -- only generative thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and sensations that we can all keep learning from and building on together.

Heather Lamoureux is a community organizer, artist, and facilitator living on Musqueam, Squamish and Tsliel-Waututh territories. She is the Artistic Director at Vines, and has grown with the festival since it’s beginning over the past seven years. Heather is  grateful to have been learning with the community of artists who percolate the work Vines does. She is committed to her responsibility to imagine and co-create nurturing creative spaces for artists. Outside of Vines Heather utilizes her Somatic Education training from Tamalpa Institute to facilitate movement and expressive arts classes. In the past I have worked for Raven Spirit Dance, PuSh International Arts Festival, Dancing on the Edge and the Firehall. She loves to garden at Harmony garden, X̱wemelch’stn pen̓em̓áy, hang out by a river and eat good food with community. I can sometimes be found performing in unexpected outdoor spaces with the collective Pressed Paradise.

Christine Mackenzie, Kwakiutl Nation, a First Nation Artist and Facilitator. Her mother was born in Bella Coola BC is a part of the Eagle clan. Her mother was part of the Sixties Scoop and because of that Christine hard time trying to find her culture and identity, but through resilient and training she found a way back to her indigenous roots. She find’s inspiration in the natural world and in the eyes of people willing to learn and share cultural ideas. Christine works with traditional/contemporary design and with multiple mediums. She been doing art all her life, but as a professional Artist and Facilitator since 2009 and mentored by Anastasia Hendry, Haida elder, she was an Artist and Facilitator for 30 plus years and has since retired. Christine now helps others in their journey to self-identity and educating others about Indigenous culture, artwork and protocols. Speaking to only my teachings and life experience to support others in better understanding of empathy when learning about Indigenous culture. 

Master printmaker, Julie McIntyre studied at the Banff Centre and holds a BFA from Queen's University.  She has had solo shows in over 22 public galleries in Canada and participated in over 60 juried exhibitions, including 25 international credits.  Julie has taught workshops across Canada for over 30 years and has been a popular Artist in Residence with the Vancouver School Board and ArtStarts for over a decade. Julie’s passion is to revel the magic of printmaking and its serendipitous nature that encourages experimentation. She uses ordinary materials and a wide range of transfer techniques to create professional results.  Her goal is to have students delight in the playfulness of the repeated image, develop a greater appreciation for qualities of paper, deepen their appreciation for surface treatment, and above all, surprise themselves.

Maggie Milne Martens is a community engaged artist and long-time art educator. She has a BFA in printmaking, and an MA in Art History.  She and has taught both studio art and theory at the post-secondary level and is currently working on a PhD in Arts Education at SFU. 

Her passion for art making with children began 30 years ago in Camden New Jersey, running arts programming for risk kids in the inner city.   Since then she has created community engaged art projects for elementary schools across the lower mainland and other community groups. Maggie's practice interweaves material expressions with collaborative and embodied processes to create multilayered works that allow students into felt connect with themselves, the stories of other and the beauty and complexity of the natural world.  Maggie is co-founder of the Artist in Residence Studio program and continues to  support, mentor and  hold space for artists to share their art practice with children in schools. 

Tami Murray studied Fine Arts at both Red Deer College’s Fine Arts  Department and at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design where she  received her Bachelors degree in Photography.  Tami’s personal work is an ever evolving exploration of techniques and  fanciful ideas. Her Art has roots in personal narrative that lean into  flights of whimsy and visual poetics
 

She has exhibited in various groups shows over the last two decades,  participated in several Living Room Art in the Heights events in Burnaby  and Vancouver as well as the innaugural Stride Art Festival. She has  work in a number of private collections.

Originally from Mexico City, filmmaker and digital media artist Yunuen Perez Vertti has over 20yrs of experience in the film and television industry. She has worked in various roles and projects and produced films for many public, private and non-profit organizations. Her short documentary "Aparajita" The undefeated was successfully screened at Tasveer Seattle South Asian Film Festival, Topanga Film Festival and Gulf Coast Film & Video Festival. She has been working as an artist in residency in the schools for the past five years. She is passionate about education through the arts and the importance of the arts as a fundamental tool for education. She believes teaching and introducing kids to all art disciplines as early as possible is essential to a healthy society.

Alejandro (Alex) is a visual artist born in Guatemala who immigrated to Canada as a political refugee with his family at a young age. In these challenging early years, Alejandro found art to be a valuable and transformative creative outlet. Later, he pursued a degree in Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. The principle themes of Alejandro’s work revolve around cultural identity, the natural world, and the struggle between competing Canadian and Mayan cultural beliefs. As such, his work is often exploratory, revolving around reconciliation between Western and Indigenous cultures. His work extends into musical performance, photography, traditional Mayan dance, gardening, ceramics, textiles, watercolours, and community-based initiatives. Central to his practice is his desire to communicate introspective lessons through traditional storytelling, and support a sense of interconnectedness for all.

Alysha Seriani is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of film production, media art and community projects. Her work proposes horizontal modes of collaboration and seeks to witness feminist practices, intergenerational learning and queer joy. Some recent projects include speculative evidence for a children’s autonomous zone for UNIT/PITT’s La Commune 2021 and Marble presents “IT’S MY HOUSE” for grunt gallery’s MPCAS in collaboration with Hazel Meyer. As Media Artist in Residence at Walter Moberly Elementary School with the AIRS Program, she is leading a year-long inquiry with children using school-issued iPads as a tool for bewilderment and animation. She gratefully lives and co-creates on the unceded ancestral lands of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim-speaking peoples (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ nations), also known as East Vancouver.

Kathryn Wadel is an interdisciplinary mixed media artist who works and resides on the traditional and unceded territories of the Katzie First Nation and Kwantlen First Nation peoples. She holds a BFA degree from Emily Carr University, with a major in Visual Arts and a minor in Social Practice and Community Engagement. Her work explores environmental, cultural and social practices that connect communities across disciplines. She utilizes mixed media techniques in her painting, drawing, and sculptural practices that often explore the human condition as it exists within the Anthropocene. In the studio, she facilitates and encourages art-making as a creative process through socially-engaged material play. Kathryn believes that art is an essential human practice that builds meaningful connections across cultures and communities.