2025 Highlights
Students gather in the Ceramics Studio to show off their finds in the annual Easter Egg Hunt
We kicked off the busy 2024/25 academic year with the Interdisciplinary Project, featuring a revival of the “Cooking with Glass” event organized by the Glass Studio. Throughout the year, extracurricular and social activities included potluck meals, pizza parties, picnics, and the annual Easter Egg Hunt, with participating students and faculty searching for egg-sized craft objects hidden in the studios.
Cooking food with glass on a cast iron griddle during Interdisciplinary Project week.
FIELD TRIPS NEAR AND FAR
Director of Craft & Design Melanie Egan tours 1st year students around Elaborate exhibition at Harbourfront Centre, featuring the work of current Ceramics faculty member Marc Egan, and former ceramics faculty Marissa Y Alexander and Lindsay Montgomery.
Students, from all years of study, took advantage of the many field trips opportunities in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond. Gallery visits included touring exhibitions at Harbourfront Centre, Craft Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum, Art Gallery of Burlington, the Textile Museum of Canada, OCADU Onsite Gallery, and DesignTO, and Textiles students took in a performance of Faust at Canadian Opera Company.
Students visited working studios of professional artists and designers at Harbourfront Centre, Contemporary Textile Studio Cooperative, Ceramics, Rug-hooking, and Weaving Guild Studios at Art Gallery of Burlington, as well as industry-leading businesses, such as Art Aggregate, Coolican and Company, Hamilton Holmes, Hollis + Morris, Millworks Custom Manufacturing (MCM), Spec Furniture, the Wood Shed, the Wood Studio, and Yabu Pushelberg.
In November, students from multiple disciplines accompanied the Glass studio on their yearly 3-day trip to the Corning Museum of Glass, Library and Studios, and visited the studios at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, in New York State.
For the first time since the pandemic, students were able to travel to Guatemala in February for our International Field Study course. Furniture and Industrial Design Faculty member Kirsten White led students through a two-week participatory design project in close collaboration with Itza Wood, as social enterprise that uses sustainable and locally sourced wood to handcraft furnishings and woodware.
First year textiles students tour the textiles studio with artists in residence Oliva Mae Sinclair, Clio Windust and Khadija Aziz.
Ceramics students enjoy a curator’s tour of… with Art Gallery of Burlington curator Suzanne Carte.
Student try out backstrap loom weaving during an excursion as part of our International Field Studio course in Guatemala.
Suzanne Carte discusses the installation of Midnight, the David R. Harper exhibition at Art Gallery of Burlington, with 4th textiles students
SPACE & PLACE – MAKING & THINKING SYMPOSIUM
Co-presented by Harbourfront Centre, Craft Ontario, and Sheridan College Craft & Design, this 3-day symposium explored collaboration, community and relationship building in the craft sector, presenting a film screening, live panel discussions, and demonstrations. Sessions presented conversations between craft community dignitaries such as Alan Elder and Judith Tinkl, and emerging thinkers and powerhouses such as the team behind DesignTO. The third day was held in the Craft & Design wing at Sheridan College and featured a panel discussion with C&D studio technologists Duncan Aird, Jason Cornish, Janelle Guthrie and Christina Pupo in conversation with C&D program coordinator, Gord Thompson.
Studio Technologists Janelle Guthrie, Duncan Aird, Jason Cornish and Christina Pupo at the Making & Thinking Symposium, co-presented by Sheridan College, Craft Ontario and Harbourfront Centre.
FACULTY TRAVELS & ACCOLADES
Glass faculty member Dr. Owen Johnson gave a presentation on August 24, 2024, during a conference at Pilchuck Glass school, in Washington state. Owen was also shortlisted for the 7th John Ruskin exhibition in London, UK. Textiles Studio faculty members Thea Haines and Rachel Miller both travelled to Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland to present workshops at the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador Sustainable Fibre Arts Conference. Glass faculty member Jin Won Han will be doing a demonstration at the GAAC conference in Whitehorse in June 2025.
INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS & COMMUNITY PROJECTS
Once again, this year, students in Textiles worked in groups on projects led by studio head Thea Haines in collaboration with Creative Matters Inc., a Toronto based floor and wall covering design house founded in 1988. Students were provided input and support from Sophie Williams and Ana Diosdado – both designers at Creative Matters – and Sheridan Alumni. Students took inspiration from rugs designed by Creative Matters and developed a series of designs incorporating a combination of techniques, such as tufting, needle punch, print (digital or screen printing), dyeing, felting, embroidery, and fabric manipulation.
Third year Textiles students with Studio Head Thea Haines, Studio Technologist Janelle Guthrie and Designer/advisors from Creative Matters Inc., Ana Disodado and Sophie Williams
For the past 15 years, the Furniture Studio has led a community engagement initiative that brings students and local organizations together through design. This year, third-year Furniture students collaborated with Mabelle Arts—a community-based organization located in Central Etobicoke. Partnering with micro-business vendors from Mabelle’s local market, the students co-designed a versatile market cart tailored to the vendors' needs. Connie Chisholm, Furniture Faculty and founder of the social enterprise Codesign, continues to play a central role in these projects. Through her leadership and ongoing partnerships, she serves as the vital link between the college and community organizations.
Third-year Furniture students present a mock-up of their cart design to micro-business vendors and staff from Mabelle Arts.
Craft & Design also partnered with the Centre for Indigenous Learning and Support at Sheridan to host indigenous-led workshops in basketry, beading and ribbon skirt/shirt making.
In the summer of 2024, the Glass Studio began a new partnership with the Corning Museum in Corning, NY. 3 students completed their co-op placements in the museum studio. In the summer of 2025, 6 students and graduates going to work in the studio for 3 months.
Craft & Design also partnered with the Centre for Indigenous Learning and Support at Sheridan to host indigenous-led workshops in basketry, beading and ribbon skirt/shirt making for indigenous students and other members of the Sheridan Community.
FUNDRAISING
The volume of mugs and bowls thrown during Mug-and-Bowl-O-Rama, the ceramics studio’s fundraising weekend, is impressive!
Student fundraising activities included the annual ceramics Mug and Bowl O Rama, and our annual Craft & Design Holiday Ornament Sale. Together, the students worked hard to raise funds make possible our visiting artist talks and workshops, field trips, exhibitions, and awards.
STUDENT & ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENTS
David Laurin’s Eco-Brut Low Stool on display at IDS 2025
Sheridan’s Bachelor of Craft and Design students and alumni made a strong impression at Toronto’s Design Week this year. At IDS 2025’s Prototype exhibition, second-year Furniture student Wendi Jiang and fourth-year students San Hu and David Laurin showcased their work alongside alumni Joel Galenkamp (Furniture 2023), Joel Martin (Industrial Design 2024), and Alison Postma (Furniture 2024). Joel Galenkamp earned an Honourable Mention, while Alison Postma was recognized with the prestigious Juror’s Choice Award.
Running concurrently with IDS, the DesignTO Festival featured About Time, an exhibition celebrating the work of an exceptional group of Sheridan Furniture graduates: Gwynne Allanford, Audrey Assad, Isabel Catalli, Cait Kalb, David Lewis, and Jordan Poirier.
Carole Sprickerhoff (Textiles 2024) was the recipient of the Canadian Colour Research Society Undergraduate Student Award for work from her Sheridan Capstone Project.
Industrial Design students will participate once again this year in the annual Rocket Design Competition.
STUDENT EXHIBITIONS
Our annual graduate exhibition, Ideas & Objects ’25 took place at the Creative Campus Gallery, at Hazel McCallion Campus. Off-campus exhibitions included: Ceramics graduate exhibition Continuum, at Craft Ontario, from April 4 to May 5; Textiles graduate exhibition, Looking Out, at you me gallery, May 8 to 11; Furniture Graduate exhibition Twelve, Twelve, at Gallery 1313, from June 12 to 21; and Glass graduate exhibition Embodied at Gallery 1313, from July 10-20, 2025.
Visiting Artist talk with ceramic sculptor Matt Wedel
VISITING ARTISTS, GUEST SPEAKERS & CRITICS
Our Craft & Design studios invited an array of professional artists and designers this year to visit our students and share their knowledge via presentations, lectures, workshops, and critiques. Many of these leaders are also graduates of the Craft & Design program.
Here are some of the folks we invited to our studios:
Gwynne Allanford – Alumni, class of 2021, and Junior Designer, Yabu Pushelberg
Nathan Clarke – Alumni, class of 2015, and Director of Craft and Production, Coolican and Company
Tony Clennel – ceramicist, former faculty member
Rob Diemert – Former Furniture Studio Technologist at Sheridan College
Melanie Egan – Director, Craft & Design, Harbourfront Centre
Peter Fleming – Former Furniture Studio Head at Sheridan College
Caroline Forde – Alumni, class of 2015, textile/costume breakdown technician
Bahar Ghaemi – Creative Director, Yabu Pushelberg
David R Harper – multidisciplinary artist
Janna Hiemstra – Executive Director, Craft Ontario
Jasmine Hogg – Alumni, class of 2016, Product Development Leader, Spec Furniture
Mark Hursty – glass artist, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina, Asheville
Matt Kelleher – ceramic potter, Assistant Professor, Alfred University
Charlie Larouche-Potvin – glass artist, Artist in Residence, Harbourfront Centre
Janna Levitt – Founding Partner, LGA Architectural Partners
Dylan Moore – Designer, Artist, and Maker, Dylan Moore Studio
David Quan – Director of Education ACIDO (The Association of Charted of Industrial Designers of Ontario)
Olivia Mae Sinclair – Alumni, class of 2018, Artist in Residence, Harbourfront Centre
Brendan Stewart – Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Guelph
Matt Wedel – ceramic artist
Peter Fleming and Kirsten White inspecting and testing out Lindsey Ainsworth’s Capstone work during the final critique