Artist in Residence

The Artist-in-Residence program allows for students to work side-by-side with professional artists.

Through this exciting program, our students are given the chance to explore the creative techniques and processes of a diverse range of art disciplines, while also developing a deeper appreciation for culture, the arts, and local artists.

Thanks to the generosity of our community at the 2014 Silver Gala, KCS welcomed our first Artists-in-Residence during the 2014-2015 school year.

Since then, we have invited a different Artist-in-Residence to come and work at KCS each year. These artists bring new experiences to our school, and provide a creative energy and unique perspective that enhances our existing art curriculum.

But if you ask our students, they’ll just tell you the best part is getting to work with a “real artist”!

Stay tuned for the return of this program and more info on our next Artist in Residence.

Past Artists in Residence

2018-2019 Lindy Kinoshameg

Indigenous Arts-Based Workshops with Lindy Kinoshameg

The 2018-19 Artist in Residence was Lindy Kinoshameg, an Indigenous Artist who works in partnership with Young People’s Theatre of Toronto.

Lindy Kinoshameg is from Wikwemikong Unceded First Nation, and is a Community Engagement Facilitator. As the artist-in-residence, Lindy facilitated a series of Indigenous arts-based workshops tailored to each grade level and planned in consultation with the school’s curriculum goals.

Every KCS student and teacher had the privilege of working with Lindy. Together, we learned about the Seven Ancestral Teachings: Honesty, Bravery, Humility, Respect, Wisdom, Truth, and Love and explored these themes through a wide variety of workshops. We are very grateful for the time Lindy spent with us at KCS. By sharing his culture and wisdom with us, we were inspired to learn more and live with respect.

Residency Highlights

Indigenous Performances and Social Dancing with Lindy
Teacher and student workshops
Seven Ancestral Teachings and Turtle Island Story telling
Land Acknowledgements and Land and Treaties with students
Turtle Back Mural

2017-2018 Claire Nicholls

Mindfulness in Art with Claire Nicholls

KCS welcomed Claire Nicolls, Director and primary art instructor of the award-winning art studio, Picasso's Garage as our Artist-in-Residence for the 2017/18 school year.

Claire brought students a wealth of experience with visual art and taught our students to use art as a tool to build personal, social and emotional resilience.

Students used many strategies such as exercise, reading, writing and yoga to help manage stress, worry or other strong emotions. Learning how to add art to that repertoire further strengthened our students coping strategies.

Art is a powerful means of non-verbal communication. It allows for visual storytelling and makes our brains stronger by connecting the left and right side. Students in grades 1 to 8 created a wide variety of projects with Claire including:

mixed media and digital art journals
superhero media comic strips
paint and water-colour insect illustrations
animal spirit stones
superhero self-portraits

The mindfulness, empowering, playful, and positive benefits of art are a few of the ideas that Claire Nicholls shared with our students while they created these exciting projects.

2015-2016 Meagan O’Shea

Contemporary dance-theatre artist, Meagan O’Shea

The 2015/16 KCS Artist in Residence was Canadian contemporary dance-theatre artist Meagan O’Shea.

Meagan has been helping children all around the world discover the joys of dance and theatre for twenty years. She has worked with Grades 2 – 8 extensively in Artists in Education projects throughout Ontario, and was recognized for her contribution with an Artist Educator Award nomination from the Ontario Arts Foundation.

Using a combination of physical and cooperative activities, Meagan helped our students learn new movement and dance skills. In addition, her work is designed to help children develop their presence, listening skills, and collective leadership abilities.

2014-2015 Liisa Sorsa

Graphic recorder and visual language expert, Liisa Sorsa

Liisa Sorsa from Think Link Graphics was our Artist-in-Residence for the 2014/2015 school year.

Liisa is a facilitator, graphic recorder, and visual language expert. She helps people visualize concepts by turning complex problems into easy to understand graphics. Liisa's art allows people to ‘see what they mean’ by turning their conversations into a compelling graphic record.

Liisa was chosen to be the first KCS Artist-in–Residence because her work integrates several areas of the arts. Visual art, media art, music, and dramatic art are all part of the process. We also felt it was important to introduce our students to an art form that is currently not offered in our arts classes. Liisa and her team of artists from Think Link Graphics worked with students in all Junior School grades throughout the year.

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