Artist Faculty

Shalan Joudry

Sam Hall

Ian McKay (The Senior)
Ian loves helping people become Makers. In the past, he has run workshops at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts in basic robotics, making art from upcycled electronics and rocketry. He used to be a High School teacher in a former life and still loves to facilitate groups of enthusiastic learners when he shares his passion for STEAM [Science, Technology, Art, Engineering and Math] with others.

Kim Barlow

Amélie Brindamour
Amélie Brindamour is an artist and art educator based in Montreal, Canada, exploring environmental and urban issues through place-specific projects including temporary actions, participatory performances, eat-art and photography. She favors art and education initiatives that have an impact on or help with fostering communities, as well as contexts that encourage nature appreciation, inclusion, collaboration, and experimentation. She holds a Bachelor degree in Visual Arts and a Master in Art Education from Concordia University. She speaks fluently French, English and Spanish.

Patrick Burgomaster
Patrick Burgomaster is a painter and cartoonist. He loves to laugh and enjoys life. Patrick has been teaching Introductory Drawing classes for adults and art classes to kids since 2009; he believes he learns as much from the children as he teaches them. His goal is for the children to have fun while also absorbing basic principles of fine art.
Patrick has a BFA from NSCAD and besides teaching works as an illustrator. You might see him around the city playing piano at stand-up comedy shows.

Henry Colin
Henry Colin is an independent filmmaker and producer from Halifax Nova Scotia. Graduating from the NSCC in 2014, Henry has spent the last several years following his dream of filmmaking, having directed a variety of short films, taking on the producing role for music videos, working on various productions and even winning awards for his work. In 2016, his short documentary, “Turtle in the Wrong Shell”, won the best low budget documentary award at the SilverWave Film Festival in Fredericton. Beginning in 2014 he has been teaching an annual filmmaking camp for children at the celebrated Ross Creek Centre for the Arts. Henry works hard every day, always pursuing the filmmaking dream. Dream Big!

David LeRue
The hardest part about making is starting. I structure my classes to encourage doing before thinking. Make a mark! Pick a colour! Take the exercise as far as you can! Once a project is in progress, I view myself as a mediator. Let’s work with what you have! I encourage my students to focus on their strengths, ideally helping them to channel their excitement and energy into the work they’re doing. I love the excitement that young artists bring to their practices, and the feeling of discovery when the unexpected happens. When class is going well, I’m merely steering the energy, calling out directions for students on their own ships to interpret as they will. If I’ve done my job well, students come away seeing things in a new way, learning new techniques, and feeling more confident in their abilities and ready to take on new challenges. Failure is always an option.

Elizabeth Sircom
Elizabeth Sircom has been giving workshops through PAINTS, the AGNS ArtsSmarts programme, the Acadia University Art Gallery and Grow With Art at NSCC Kentville since 2014. Although she initially trained as a painter, most of her work at present is 3-dimensional (clay) and portraiture has always been one of her central themes. She grew up near Hantsport in the Annapolis Valley. She studied languages at Dalhousie University and the University of Tours, France, then painting and drawing in Paris. From 1992-2013 she lived in Le Havre, Normandy, working as an artist and teaching drawing and painting to adults and children. She returned to live in Nova Scotia in the summer of 2013. Elizabeth Sircom is also a musician (cello) and is presently Program Director for the Acadia Regional Youth Orchestra (ARYO) in Wolfville.

Lindsay Jacquard
Lindsay Jacquard is an arts educator and administrator living in Saint John, New Brunswick. She was born and raised in the Annapolis Valley and, long ago, was a camper at Ross Creek herself. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from NSCAD University, and a Graduate Diploma in Arts Management from Queen’s University. She is passionate about encouraging and enabling creative pursuits, working with organizations such as Two Planks and a Passion Theatre, Halifax Regional Municipality, and Neptune Theatre. Lindsay’s own artistic practice involves painting, portraiture, strangeness, and play.

Sobaz Benjamin
Sobaz, a story teller, makes use of story-telling tools such as the West African Djembe drum, film cameras, voice (music and radio production) and community based theatre. He earned a BFA in Film and Video Production from York University as well as BA in Political Science and Mass Communications. He is the Founder and Executive Director of an arts based, not for profti in Hailfax called In My Own Voice (iMOVe) Arts Association. He has produced films for the National Film Board, and the CBC.

Ami McKay
Ami MacKay is the author of three bestselling novels–The Birth House, The Virgin Cure, and The Witches of New York—as well as the novella, Half Spent Was the Night. Her memoir, Daughter of Family G was named a CBC Best Book of 2019. McKay is also a playwright, composer, and essayist. Born and raised in the Midwest, she now lives in Nova Scotia.