Current and Previous Local and International Jurors
Our 2025 Jurors
Michel Dumont is a queer, Métis, Two-Spirit, disabled artist and trauma survivor based in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Michel specializes in breathing new life into discarded vintage tile in striking mosaic pieces. As a survivor of intergenerational trauma stemming from Indian Day School, Michel’s work often explores emerging themes in anti-colonial urban indigenous and queer identities.
Brenna Prouse is a local musician born and raised in Anemki Wequedong (Thunder Bay) and current pre-service primary-junior teacher. Holding an HBMUS degree in vocal performance, Brenna teaches both private and group music lessons, Music for Young Children (MYC) music classes, frequently performs for significant events, and hopes to support/nurture young artists.
Christina van Barneveld, PhD, is a professor in the Faculty of Education, Lakehead University, and artist living in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Her glass-on-glass mosaics explore contemporary issues for women situated on the rugged north shore of Lake Superior.
Past Jurors
Biljana Baker is a full-time watercolour artist who resides in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Born in Yugoslavia, came to Canada in 1964 and grew up in Toronto. She is a founding member of Six Degrees of Freedom, a member of Artisan's Northwest, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, and is an associate member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour (CSPWC). She is past co-chair of Clean, Green, and Beautiful, and was past chair of the Public Art Committee for the City of Thunder Bay.
Daniel T. Barney, Ph.D. is the Director of Master of Arts in Teaching II at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia in the School of Art. He is a curriculum scholar, interdisciplinary artist, and arts-based researcher who publishes and exhibits his work widely. According to Barney, art orients us to a generative kind of trouble.
Barbara Bickel Ph.D. is an artist, researcher, educator and writer. An Emeritas Associate Professor of Art Education at Southern Illinois University now practicing in Calgary, Alberta Canada, she co-founded Studio M*: A Research Creation Lab Intersecting Arts, Culture and Healing. Her creative research explores matrixial and connective aesthetics through place-based inquiries. http://www.barbarabickel.ca/
Elizabeth Buset is an artist and educator from Thunder Bay. She received her HBFA and BEd from Lakehead University and her MFA from Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture in Helsinki, Finland. She has received numerous grants from the Ontario Arts Council for both her studio practice in high realism painting, and her various community arts projects that work with underserved youth. For more information: http://www.elizabethbuset.com/
Christian Chapman is of Anishinabe heritage from Fort William First Nation, Ontario. Christian uses storytelling as a main theme in his practice to create his images. His recent exhibitions include His numerous awards include the Hnatyshyn Foundation Reveal Art National Award Prize (2017), the Ontario Premier's Award for Excellence in the Arts as Emerging Artist of the Year (2016), and the K. M. Hunter Artist Award of the Ontario Arts Foundation (2016).
Yichien Cooper teaches at Washington State University, Tri-Cities. Her research explores STEAM, visualization, arts-based pedagogy, and Asian aesthetics. She is the National Art Education Association's Higher Education Division Director-Elect. She received City of Richland’s 2019 Proclamation of Appreciation and United States Society of Education through Art’s 2023 Ziegfeld Service Award.
Patrick Doyle is a painter from Thunder Bay, Ontario. He has studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design in the Fine Art Graduate Program, and the Independent Studies Program in Florence, Italy. Patrick has headlined and been featured in several art exhibitions in Thunder Bay. He works primarily in oil on masonite.
Siobhan Farrell is the Director of Active Learning at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Communications Studies from Concordia University and a Master of Science in Rural Planning and Development from the University of Guelph. She is interested in enhancing arts and humanities content for medical learners.
Sandra L. Faulkner is Professor of Communication at BGSU. She authored three chapbooks, Hello Kitty Goes to College (dancing girl press, 2012), Knit Four, Make One (Kattywompus, 2015), and Postkarten aus Deutschland (http://liminalities.net/12-1/postkarten.html). She researches, teaches, and writes about relationships in NW Ohio. She received the Knower Outstanding Article Award from the National Communication Association for her narrative work.
Shelby Gagnon is an Anishnaabe/Cree artist from Aroland living in Thunder Bay. An advocate for the lands, waters, and Indigenous peoples, she graduated from Lakehead University's Fine Arts program. Gagnon uses multi-disciplinary media to express holism and expand her knowledge and contemporary take on traditional methods of art and healing.
David A. Greenwood, Ph.D., is a Professor and Canada Research Chair of Environmental Education at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. His scholarship, teaching, and activism revolve around place-based, environmental, sustainability, and holistic education. Widely published in these areas, he is also co-editor of several books and journals, including Place-Based Education in the Global Age: Local Diversity.
Kathryn Grushka, PhD, is an internationally recognized fibre artist with over 25 years experience in various forms of education, from visual art secondary teaching, community arts projects to tertiary teaching in Fine Art and Teacher Education. She currently works in pre-service teacher education at the University of Newcastle, Australia.
John J. Guiney Yallop, PhD, is a parent, a partner and a poet. John is also an associate professor at Acadia University where he teaches about the creative arts and literacy in teaching and research.
Eric Hamilton, PhD, is Professor of Education with Courtesy Appointment in Mathematics, at Pepperdine University in Malibu California. He carries out research on fostering creative expression by science and mathematics teachers through digital media-making, and oversees an international digital makerspace collaborative involving students from the US, Finland, Namibia, and Kenya.
Becky Helliar works as a ceramic artist and freelance community arts practitioner in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. She is an active member of Limestreet studios in the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. She initially studied Architecture but has found her creative outlet best suited to ceramics. Becky also works with people with learning disabilities and autism both creatively and in a supportive role. https://www.instagram.com/rawpots_northeast/?hl=en
Kristy A Homes, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Art History and Chair of the Department of Visual Arts at Lakehead University. She received her PhD from Queen's University in 2008 and her MA in the Social History of Art from the University of Leeds in 2000. Her research explores modern and contemporary feminist art and visual culture in Canada and the United States and critical cultural theory.
Geoffrey L. Hudson, PhD (Oxford), is an Associate Professor in the History of Medicine at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, based on the Lakehead campus. His research interests are in the social history of medicine, with a focus on disability.
Brianne (Bree) Island is a nehiyaw iskwew / Cree woman from Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, Treaty 8 territory. As self-taught visual artist, Bree unleashes her creativity at the intersection of art and technology, and the traditional and digital. Bree’s art is a reclamation of Indigenous ancestral knowledge and the visual storytelling of Indigenous futurisms. Grounded in cultural protocols and teachings, her art is also an intimate sharing of nehiyaw / Cree worldviews, and honours connections to land and spirit. Her work can be found on social media @bree.island @wearemixedcreatives
Carmela Laganse's practice is engaged with the intersections of embodied experience and perception, exploring the agency and ideologies embedded in objects. Laganse received an MFA from Ohio University and a BFA from the University of Manitoba. She is an Associate Professor in the School of the Arts at McMaster University.
Fred Larsen (BA/MA), a retired secondary school teacher and Department Head (English), has been a resident and supporter of the arts in the Orillia area since 1971. He is President of the Orillia Vocal Ensemble (choir), a Past President of the Orillia Kiwanis Club, and is one of the founders of both Arts Orillia (in 2015) and Sustainable Orillia (in 2019).
Alexandra Lasczik is a multi-award winning teacher and researcher known internationally for her work in Arts-Based Educational Research [ABER] framed knowledge translation modes that speak to broader audiences than just the academy. She is a painter, photographer and printmaker, as well as a poet and writer. Of particular focus in her work is the environment, youth participatory research and movement studies, especially walking methodologies and global diasporas.
Patricia Leavy, PhD, is an award-winning independent sociologist and novelist. Her eighteen published books include Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice, Low-Fat Love and American Circumstance. She edits five book series for Oxford University Press and Sense Publishers and has regular blogs for The Huffington Post and The Creativity Post. She is currently based in Maine, USA.
Carl Leggo is a poet and professor at the University of British Columbia. His books include: Growing Up Perpendicular on the Side of a Hill; View from My Mother’s House; Come-By-Chance; Teaching to Wonder: Responding to Poetry in the Secondary Classroom; and Sailing in a Concrete Boat: A Teacher’s Journey.
Lillian Lewis, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Art Education at Youngstown State University. She holds a PhD in Art Education from Penn State University and an MA in Museum Education from University of North Texas. Her research spans curatorial, studio, and scholarly practices researching dynamics of power within
institutions and communities through the lens of intercultural studies and intersectional feminism.
Ledah McKellar is Lakehead University's inaugural Sustainability Coordinator. Having acquired her BA in African Studies from McGill, Ledah went on to earn both her B.Ed and M.Ed from Lakehead. Embracing an approach to sustainability that is informed by multiple worldviews, Ledah's goal is to support a culture of sustainability at the University. Ledah has worked on a number of grant-funded projects with faculty members and community organizations, like EcoSuperior. An avid outdoorswoman, Ledah spends her spare time canoeing the myriad lakes and rivers of Northwestern Ontario. www.lakeheadu.ca/about/sustainability
Lisa Makela is a multidisciplinary artist working in Thunder Bay. Makela completed her HBFA at Lakehead Univeristy majoring in painting and ceramics with a minor in psychology. She exhibits nationally, works as a ceramic technician, and teaches ceramics and painting to people with special needs. Makela uses landscape to explore the human experience and its interconnections.
Jean Marshall (b. 1976) is of Ahnishnaabe/English descent, born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Band member of Kitchenuhmaykoosib, also known as Big Trout Lake. Currently lives along the shore of Lake Superior, on the traditional lands of Fort William First Nation, Ontario. Her formal education extends back to 2000 where she earned an Honours BA in Native Studies from Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario. She was the recipient of the K.M Hunter Award in 2012.
Roland Martin was born in Windsor, Ontario and received his undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from the University of Windsor, followed by a Master of Fine Arts from James Madison University in Southern Virginia in 1992. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Thunder Bay to begin a teaching position with the Department of Visual Arts. He is currently an Assistant Professor and the Department Chair.
Patricia Morchel, is an Instructor within the Art Education Department at Teachers College, Columbia University. She comes from a background in studio art, art history and museum studies. Patricia is an exhibiting visual artist who focuses on the exploration of materials and the creation of meditative abstract paintings and drawings.
Lora Northway, HBFA, is an exhibiting artist and Program Co-ordinator for Definitely Superior Art Gallery. Founder of three successful art collectives, Die Active, Neechee, InVisible Ink, and recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the ARCCO Emerging Cultural Leader Award and the Ontario Arts Council Visual Artist Grant. Most recently she delivered a Tedx Talk on Youth Led Cultural Production.
Joe Norris, recipient of the 2015 Tom Barone Award for Distinguished Contributions to Arts Based Educational Research from the Arts Based Educational Research SIG of AERA, focuses his teaching and research on fostering a playful, creative, participatory and socially aware stance. He disseminates many of his collaborative performative inquiry projects on his website, www.joenorrisplaybuilding.ca.
Catherine Pirie is a lifelong resident of Thunder Bay and a former student of the Lakehead University Visual Arts program. She is a visual artist whose focus is acrylic and oil landscapes as well as textile art. Catherine's summer home is on the shores of Lake Superior at Silver Islet and it is here that she she finds her inspiration and does much of her work.
Clara Sacchetti, Ph.D., is a part-time instructor at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay and Co-Executive Director for CAHEP — an award-winning 18+ year arts organization. Her research weaves issues of gender, ethnicity, race, class, and the arts together from a Foucaultian and feminist perspective. She is a successful grant writer, has published 25+ peer-reviewed articles, and is the lead editor for “Superior Art: Local Art, Global Context” and “The Economy as Cultural System.” www.cahep.ca
Vicki Saunders, PhD., is a Gunggari woman from southern central Queensland. She is currently a senior research fellow with the Centre for Research Excellence: STRengthening systems for InDigenous health care Equity (CRE-STRIDE) and the Centre for Indigenous Health Equity Research (CIHER) at CQU (Central Queensland University). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow (Griffith University) undertaking a range of projects focussed around the use of Arts informed and Indigenous research methodologies.
Gisella Scalese is the Education Librarian at Lakehead University who has just completed a three year term as the President of the Ontario Teacher Education Library Association. She has a Master of Library and Information Science Degree from the University of Western Ontario and is devoted to teaching students the skills they need to find and evaluate information.
Sam Shahsahabi was born in Iran. He obtained his B.F.A from Azad University in Tehran, where he studied both modern and classical art. He has received his MFA from York University. Sam specializes in public art and kinetic and mechanical installation. His artworks exhibited in Canada, Iran, Turkey, and Japan.
Wen Shan Diao is an artist and curator from China and living in Thunder Bay. She received her MFA from East China Normal University, Shanghai in 2013. As an artist, Wenshan has exhibited in many major group shows in Shanghai and as a curator, she has led multiple curation projects for public and private clients. She has worked with major art schools in Shanghai, local/international art galleries, international hotel groups, and artists from China, Europe, and North America.
Deanna Therriault is an Indigenous visual artist based in Fort William First Nation, Ontario. Her spirit name is Giziizikwe (‘Sun Woman’) and her work has been inspired by the Indian Group of Seven, Picasso, Klimt, Frank Frazetta, and her own life and heritage. Her bold ink lines and interconnected subjects are reminiscent of the Woodland Art style, but with a clarity of inner reflection all her own.
Mitchell Thomashow is the author of four books (Ecological Identity, Bringing the Biosphere Home, The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus, and To Know the World) all published by The MIT Press. He is particularly interested in the relationship between art and science in learning to perceive environmental change. He has served many roles in higher education from faculty member to University President. He lives in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire where he loves to explore the remarkable landscape. You can learn more about his work at www.mitchelthomashow.com
Ellie Tornblom is a self-taught artist who has been living and painting with acrylics in the Thunder Bay area for over 20 years. You will see Ellie's work annually at Artisans Northwest. Ellie also creates artisan jewelry year round under the name Lunar Moose. Currently serving as the President for Artisans Northwest, Ellie is keen to encourage the artists around her, and to see an active, thriving, art community within Thunder Bay and the surrounding region.
Julie Titone is a U.S. writer whose articles and photographs have appeared in regional, national and international publications; her essays have been published in three college texts and two literary collections. She is co-author of “Boocoo Dinky Dow: My short, crazy Vietnam War. “ Her novel, "Deadline Affairs," was recorded by Books in Motion. She lives in Washington State.
Bill Zuk, Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, is an award winning multimedia artist and educator whose work charms us with its beauty and fragility of wilderness environments. His work has appeared in numerous international juried exhibitions and refereed publications and he is best known for innovative printmaking and poetic film explorations. For more information: www.zukart.ca.
Michel Dumont is a queer, Métis, Two-Spirit, disabled artist and trauma survivor based in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Michel specializes in breathing new life into discarded vintage tile in striking mosaic pieces. As a survivor of intergenerational trauma stemming from Indian Day School, Michel’s work often explores emerging themes in anti-colonial urban indigenous and queer identities.
Brenna Prouse is a local musician born and raised in Anemki Wequedong (Thunder Bay) and current pre-service primary-junior teacher. Holding an HBMUS degree in vocal performance, Brenna teaches both private and group music lessons, Music for Young Children (MYC) music classes, frequently performs for significant events, and hopes to support/nurture young artists.
Christina van Barneveld, PhD, is a professor in the Faculty of Education, Lakehead University, and artist living in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Her glass-on-glass mosaics explore contemporary issues for women situated on the rugged north shore of Lake Superior.
Past Jurors
Biljana Baker is a full-time watercolour artist who resides in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Born in Yugoslavia, came to Canada in 1964 and grew up in Toronto. She is a founding member of Six Degrees of Freedom, a member of Artisan's Northwest, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, and is an associate member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour (CSPWC). She is past co-chair of Clean, Green, and Beautiful, and was past chair of the Public Art Committee for the City of Thunder Bay.
Daniel T. Barney, Ph.D. is the Director of Master of Arts in Teaching II at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia in the School of Art. He is a curriculum scholar, interdisciplinary artist, and arts-based researcher who publishes and exhibits his work widely. According to Barney, art orients us to a generative kind of trouble.
Barbara Bickel Ph.D. is an artist, researcher, educator and writer. An Emeritas Associate Professor of Art Education at Southern Illinois University now practicing in Calgary, Alberta Canada, she co-founded Studio M*: A Research Creation Lab Intersecting Arts, Culture and Healing. Her creative research explores matrixial and connective aesthetics through place-based inquiries. http://www.barbarabickel.ca/
Elizabeth Buset is an artist and educator from Thunder Bay. She received her HBFA and BEd from Lakehead University and her MFA from Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture in Helsinki, Finland. She has received numerous grants from the Ontario Arts Council for both her studio practice in high realism painting, and her various community arts projects that work with underserved youth. For more information: http://www.elizabethbuset.com/
Christian Chapman is of Anishinabe heritage from Fort William First Nation, Ontario. Christian uses storytelling as a main theme in his practice to create his images. His recent exhibitions include His numerous awards include the Hnatyshyn Foundation Reveal Art National Award Prize (2017), the Ontario Premier's Award for Excellence in the Arts as Emerging Artist of the Year (2016), and the K. M. Hunter Artist Award of the Ontario Arts Foundation (2016).
Yichien Cooper teaches at Washington State University, Tri-Cities. Her research explores STEAM, visualization, arts-based pedagogy, and Asian aesthetics. She is the National Art Education Association's Higher Education Division Director-Elect. She received City of Richland’s 2019 Proclamation of Appreciation and United States Society of Education through Art’s 2023 Ziegfeld Service Award.
Patrick Doyle is a painter from Thunder Bay, Ontario. He has studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design in the Fine Art Graduate Program, and the Independent Studies Program in Florence, Italy. Patrick has headlined and been featured in several art exhibitions in Thunder Bay. He works primarily in oil on masonite.
Siobhan Farrell is the Director of Active Learning at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Communications Studies from Concordia University and a Master of Science in Rural Planning and Development from the University of Guelph. She is interested in enhancing arts and humanities content for medical learners.
Sandra L. Faulkner is Professor of Communication at BGSU. She authored three chapbooks, Hello Kitty Goes to College (dancing girl press, 2012), Knit Four, Make One (Kattywompus, 2015), and Postkarten aus Deutschland (http://liminalities.net/12-1/postkarten.html). She researches, teaches, and writes about relationships in NW Ohio. She received the Knower Outstanding Article Award from the National Communication Association for her narrative work.
Shelby Gagnon is an Anishnaabe/Cree artist from Aroland living in Thunder Bay. An advocate for the lands, waters, and Indigenous peoples, she graduated from Lakehead University's Fine Arts program. Gagnon uses multi-disciplinary media to express holism and expand her knowledge and contemporary take on traditional methods of art and healing.
David A. Greenwood, Ph.D., is a Professor and Canada Research Chair of Environmental Education at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. His scholarship, teaching, and activism revolve around place-based, environmental, sustainability, and holistic education. Widely published in these areas, he is also co-editor of several books and journals, including Place-Based Education in the Global Age: Local Diversity.
Kathryn Grushka, PhD, is an internationally recognized fibre artist with over 25 years experience in various forms of education, from visual art secondary teaching, community arts projects to tertiary teaching in Fine Art and Teacher Education. She currently works in pre-service teacher education at the University of Newcastle, Australia.
John J. Guiney Yallop, PhD, is a parent, a partner and a poet. John is also an associate professor at Acadia University where he teaches about the creative arts and literacy in teaching and research.
Eric Hamilton, PhD, is Professor of Education with Courtesy Appointment in Mathematics, at Pepperdine University in Malibu California. He carries out research on fostering creative expression by science and mathematics teachers through digital media-making, and oversees an international digital makerspace collaborative involving students from the US, Finland, Namibia, and Kenya.
Becky Helliar works as a ceramic artist and freelance community arts practitioner in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. She is an active member of Limestreet studios in the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. She initially studied Architecture but has found her creative outlet best suited to ceramics. Becky also works with people with learning disabilities and autism both creatively and in a supportive role. https://www.instagram.com/rawpots_northeast/?hl=en
Kristy A Homes, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Art History and Chair of the Department of Visual Arts at Lakehead University. She received her PhD from Queen's University in 2008 and her MA in the Social History of Art from the University of Leeds in 2000. Her research explores modern and contemporary feminist art and visual culture in Canada and the United States and critical cultural theory.
Geoffrey L. Hudson, PhD (Oxford), is an Associate Professor in the History of Medicine at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, based on the Lakehead campus. His research interests are in the social history of medicine, with a focus on disability.
Brianne (Bree) Island is a nehiyaw iskwew / Cree woman from Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, Treaty 8 territory. As self-taught visual artist, Bree unleashes her creativity at the intersection of art and technology, and the traditional and digital. Bree’s art is a reclamation of Indigenous ancestral knowledge and the visual storytelling of Indigenous futurisms. Grounded in cultural protocols and teachings, her art is also an intimate sharing of nehiyaw / Cree worldviews, and honours connections to land and spirit. Her work can be found on social media @bree.island @wearemixedcreatives
Carmela Laganse's practice is engaged with the intersections of embodied experience and perception, exploring the agency and ideologies embedded in objects. Laganse received an MFA from Ohio University and a BFA from the University of Manitoba. She is an Associate Professor in the School of the Arts at McMaster University.
Fred Larsen (BA/MA), a retired secondary school teacher and Department Head (English), has been a resident and supporter of the arts in the Orillia area since 1971. He is President of the Orillia Vocal Ensemble (choir), a Past President of the Orillia Kiwanis Club, and is one of the founders of both Arts Orillia (in 2015) and Sustainable Orillia (in 2019).
Alexandra Lasczik is a multi-award winning teacher and researcher known internationally for her work in Arts-Based Educational Research [ABER] framed knowledge translation modes that speak to broader audiences than just the academy. She is a painter, photographer and printmaker, as well as a poet and writer. Of particular focus in her work is the environment, youth participatory research and movement studies, especially walking methodologies and global diasporas.
Patricia Leavy, PhD, is an award-winning independent sociologist and novelist. Her eighteen published books include Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice, Low-Fat Love and American Circumstance. She edits five book series for Oxford University Press and Sense Publishers and has regular blogs for The Huffington Post and The Creativity Post. She is currently based in Maine, USA.
Carl Leggo is a poet and professor at the University of British Columbia. His books include: Growing Up Perpendicular on the Side of a Hill; View from My Mother’s House; Come-By-Chance; Teaching to Wonder: Responding to Poetry in the Secondary Classroom; and Sailing in a Concrete Boat: A Teacher’s Journey.
Lillian Lewis, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Art Education at Youngstown State University. She holds a PhD in Art Education from Penn State University and an MA in Museum Education from University of North Texas. Her research spans curatorial, studio, and scholarly practices researching dynamics of power within
institutions and communities through the lens of intercultural studies and intersectional feminism.
Ledah McKellar is Lakehead University's inaugural Sustainability Coordinator. Having acquired her BA in African Studies from McGill, Ledah went on to earn both her B.Ed and M.Ed from Lakehead. Embracing an approach to sustainability that is informed by multiple worldviews, Ledah's goal is to support a culture of sustainability at the University. Ledah has worked on a number of grant-funded projects with faculty members and community organizations, like EcoSuperior. An avid outdoorswoman, Ledah spends her spare time canoeing the myriad lakes and rivers of Northwestern Ontario. www.lakeheadu.ca/about/sustainability
Lisa Makela is a multidisciplinary artist working in Thunder Bay. Makela completed her HBFA at Lakehead Univeristy majoring in painting and ceramics with a minor in psychology. She exhibits nationally, works as a ceramic technician, and teaches ceramics and painting to people with special needs. Makela uses landscape to explore the human experience and its interconnections.
Jean Marshall (b. 1976) is of Ahnishnaabe/English descent, born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Band member of Kitchenuhmaykoosib, also known as Big Trout Lake. Currently lives along the shore of Lake Superior, on the traditional lands of Fort William First Nation, Ontario. Her formal education extends back to 2000 where she earned an Honours BA in Native Studies from Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario. She was the recipient of the K.M Hunter Award in 2012.
Roland Martin was born in Windsor, Ontario and received his undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from the University of Windsor, followed by a Master of Fine Arts from James Madison University in Southern Virginia in 1992. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Thunder Bay to begin a teaching position with the Department of Visual Arts. He is currently an Assistant Professor and the Department Chair.
Patricia Morchel, is an Instructor within the Art Education Department at Teachers College, Columbia University. She comes from a background in studio art, art history and museum studies. Patricia is an exhibiting visual artist who focuses on the exploration of materials and the creation of meditative abstract paintings and drawings.
Lora Northway, HBFA, is an exhibiting artist and Program Co-ordinator for Definitely Superior Art Gallery. Founder of three successful art collectives, Die Active, Neechee, InVisible Ink, and recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the ARCCO Emerging Cultural Leader Award and the Ontario Arts Council Visual Artist Grant. Most recently she delivered a Tedx Talk on Youth Led Cultural Production.
Joe Norris, recipient of the 2015 Tom Barone Award for Distinguished Contributions to Arts Based Educational Research from the Arts Based Educational Research SIG of AERA, focuses his teaching and research on fostering a playful, creative, participatory and socially aware stance. He disseminates many of his collaborative performative inquiry projects on his website, www.joenorrisplaybuilding.ca.
Catherine Pirie is a lifelong resident of Thunder Bay and a former student of the Lakehead University Visual Arts program. She is a visual artist whose focus is acrylic and oil landscapes as well as textile art. Catherine's summer home is on the shores of Lake Superior at Silver Islet and it is here that she she finds her inspiration and does much of her work.
Clara Sacchetti, Ph.D., is a part-time instructor at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay and Co-Executive Director for CAHEP — an award-winning 18+ year arts organization. Her research weaves issues of gender, ethnicity, race, class, and the arts together from a Foucaultian and feminist perspective. She is a successful grant writer, has published 25+ peer-reviewed articles, and is the lead editor for “Superior Art: Local Art, Global Context” and “The Economy as Cultural System.” www.cahep.ca
Vicki Saunders, PhD., is a Gunggari woman from southern central Queensland. She is currently a senior research fellow with the Centre for Research Excellence: STRengthening systems for InDigenous health care Equity (CRE-STRIDE) and the Centre for Indigenous Health Equity Research (CIHER) at CQU (Central Queensland University). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow (Griffith University) undertaking a range of projects focussed around the use of Arts informed and Indigenous research methodologies.
Gisella Scalese is the Education Librarian at Lakehead University who has just completed a three year term as the President of the Ontario Teacher Education Library Association. She has a Master of Library and Information Science Degree from the University of Western Ontario and is devoted to teaching students the skills they need to find and evaluate information.
Sam Shahsahabi was born in Iran. He obtained his B.F.A from Azad University in Tehran, where he studied both modern and classical art. He has received his MFA from York University. Sam specializes in public art and kinetic and mechanical installation. His artworks exhibited in Canada, Iran, Turkey, and Japan.
Wen Shan Diao is an artist and curator from China and living in Thunder Bay. She received her MFA from East China Normal University, Shanghai in 2013. As an artist, Wenshan has exhibited in many major group shows in Shanghai and as a curator, she has led multiple curation projects for public and private clients. She has worked with major art schools in Shanghai, local/international art galleries, international hotel groups, and artists from China, Europe, and North America.
Deanna Therriault is an Indigenous visual artist based in Fort William First Nation, Ontario. Her spirit name is Giziizikwe (‘Sun Woman’) and her work has been inspired by the Indian Group of Seven, Picasso, Klimt, Frank Frazetta, and her own life and heritage. Her bold ink lines and interconnected subjects are reminiscent of the Woodland Art style, but with a clarity of inner reflection all her own.
Mitchell Thomashow is the author of four books (Ecological Identity, Bringing the Biosphere Home, The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus, and To Know the World) all published by The MIT Press. He is particularly interested in the relationship between art and science in learning to perceive environmental change. He has served many roles in higher education from faculty member to University President. He lives in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire where he loves to explore the remarkable landscape. You can learn more about his work at www.mitchelthomashow.com
Ellie Tornblom is a self-taught artist who has been living and painting with acrylics in the Thunder Bay area for over 20 years. You will see Ellie's work annually at Artisans Northwest. Ellie also creates artisan jewelry year round under the name Lunar Moose. Currently serving as the President for Artisans Northwest, Ellie is keen to encourage the artists around her, and to see an active, thriving, art community within Thunder Bay and the surrounding region.
Julie Titone is a U.S. writer whose articles and photographs have appeared in regional, national and international publications; her essays have been published in three college texts and two literary collections. She is co-author of “Boocoo Dinky Dow: My short, crazy Vietnam War. “ Her novel, "Deadline Affairs," was recorded by Books in Motion. She lives in Washington State.
Bill Zuk, Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, is an award winning multimedia artist and educator whose work charms us with its beauty and fragility of wilderness environments. His work has appeared in numerous international juried exhibitions and refereed publications and he is best known for innovative printmaking and poetic film explorations. For more information: www.zukart.ca.