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Abby Nowakowski is a queer interdisciplinary artist based in Central Frontenac. Through printmaking, textiles, illustration, and handpoke tattooing, they spread advocacy for care, share stories, and make space for radical softness. In their practice, they are constantly questioning how their artwork can be used as an activist tool and contribute to the collective creative building of sustainable futures. Abby explores themes of transformative justice, belonging, and hopefulness. Learning lessons from the natural world, Abby often leans towards local flora and wildlife as powerful examples of community building and resistance.

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Alanna Veitch is an interdisciplinary disabled poet-artist and scholar living in Katarokwi/Kingston, where she is completing her PhD at Queen’s University. Her work grapples with disability and the embodied politics of emotion, its affect, and the aesthetics of uncertainty and hope. Veitch is affected by change, by the uncertainty of the future, by moments that endure in their spontaneity. She writes out of necessity, bringing poetic text and image together to register the complexity of emotions which circulate between, shape, and bind us to one another. She has performed at local events, with publications in literary arts and academic sites including Atlantis, Critical Disability Discourses, Syphon, Critical Studies, and Union Gallery. Veitch’s doctoral work uses research-creation to give shape to an affective economy of disability.

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Alyssa Lynn is a passionate Katarokwi/Kingston-based, queer, artist-educator whose work explores themes of belonging, nostalgia, gender and sexual identity, and community. She works in a variety of mediums from acrylics and oil pastels to felting, embroidery and cross-stitch. Through both artmaking and art-education, Alyssa seeks to foster empathy, bridge gaps between communities, and create spaces of acceptance and connection.

Deeply committed to activism and social justice, Alyssa uses art and education to support 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, address gender-based violence, and promote kindness. Her creative practice is rooted in the belief that art can be a powerful tool for building inclusive, supportive communities. Her art is illustrative and full of imaginative visuals that she hopes will inspire speculative worldings and innovative futurities.

A lifelong learner, Alyssa holds a BAH in Art History and French Studies and a B.Ed with a concentration in Arts & Learning. Currently, she is pursuing an MA in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University, researching the ways that felting can inspire new ways of teaching and curating. Her art and teaching practices are one and the same, reflecting care, curiosity and inclusion.

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Felicia Holmes is a half-Filipino multidisciplinary performance artist based in Kingston, Ontario. Felicia graduated from the Music Theatre program at St. Lawrence College and Queen’s University in 2023. You may have seen Felicia onstage as Rebecca St. Germaine in 6 AM Productions’ Love in the First Degree, Liz Imbrie in Blue Canoe Productions’ High Society, and Phoebe in Domino Theatre’s As You Like It. Felicia is passionate about storytelling as a way to make the world a better place—whether by making people laugh or encouraging deeper empathy. Her artistic practice spans singing, acting, movement, writing, and design. Felicia is an enthusiastic supporter of artists across all creative disciplines. Felicia is excited to collaborate and create something unique with fellow artists during this residency.

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Sumera Khan is a modern impressionist oil painter, urban sketcher, and arts educator based in Katarokwi/Kingston. As a BIPOC artist and caregiver to individuals with invisible disabilities, her work and community practice are rooted in accessibility, inclusion, and connection through the arts. Her work centers on storytelling, memory, and identity, often exploring themes of caregiving and domestic space. She is one of the Board of Directors at Union Gallery, a Development Council member at Cultivate Art Commons, and the founder of the Urban Sketchers Hub, a group that gathers regularly to sketch around Kingston. Sumera works from the Tett Centre’s Creativity Studio Space and has received multiple grants from the Ontario Arts Council, and CKAF 2025 from Kingston Arts Council and the City of Kingston.

Nic is an emerging theatre artist creating immersive and community-engaged performance rooted in ethical participation and embodied dramaturgy. Nic’s work explores discomfort as a compositional and social tool, examining how fear, uncertainty, and vulnerability can be worked through in shared spaces. Nic is interested in how performance can create conditions for collective reflection, connection, and care, particularly in response to contemporary political and economic instability.

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Irimé is an artist and designer from Katarokwi-Kingston who has recently returned to the city after some years away from home. Most of their commission work pertains to creating custom clothing pieces from upcycled textile and recycled material. While they are probably best known for their impact on the runway, their practice spans across medium and genre into visual art, dance, and teaching worlds as well.

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Em Harmsen is a designer and artist currently residing in Kingston. She founded emske design studio in 2020, a mindful creative studio that is environmentally conscious and adaptively minded. Em has a holistic approach to design, thinking of functionality in a variety of ways with an emphasis on the use of natural materials. Her artistic practice is experimental and playful, which drives her creative processes. Her medium of choice is usually textile based, but she is also a skilled illustrator and digital graphic artist. She completed a bachelors degree in fashion design at Toronto Metropolitan University, then years later continued her studies completing a masters degree focused on inclusive and accessible design. Currently Em is furthering her research in user centred design as a PhD student in the Cultural Studies department at Queen's University. Em is an advocate for accessible practices and a big fan of slow thoughtful design and artistic work.

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Liv Rondeau is an artist of mixed Kanyen'kehá:ka, Irish, and French-Canadian heritage, raised in the Niagara Region. Her lineage carries both Kanyen'kehá:ka and Irish roots through her mother, and French-Canadian heritage through her father. Like many Indigenous families, Liv's story is one of reconnection-held with care and approached with mindfulness to ensure it is guided by community and done with intention.

With humility and respect, Liv is reconnecting with her Kanyen'kehá:ka heritage through the teachings of her maternal grandfather. She is a member of the Kenhte:ke Longhouse, where she sits with the Wolf Clan, and grounds her work as an artist and scholar in the principles of the Great Law of Peace.

Liv's beadwork practice brings together traditional Haudenosaunee raised techniques and contemporary methods to create detailed, three-dimensional designs that honour Haudenosaunee artistry. Rooted in relationships, her pieces have been shared with Indigenous Matriarchs and Patriarchs across Turtle Island.

Through community workshops, Liv shares beadwork as a way to foster connection, support well-being, and carry forward stories. Her practice is part of a larger commitment to cultural resurgence, supporting the continuation of Haudenosaunee traditions for future generations.

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Maggie Whitmore, known artistically as crybaby, is a Katarokwi-Kingston-based interdisciplinary artist whose work merges curation, installation, and photography.

Holding a Master's in Art History from Queen's University, she examines exhibition structures, challenges traditional power dynamics, and fosters active audience engagement. As co-manager of a local creative photography studio, Maggie enhances artists' access to rental spaces, promoting collaboration. Her photography specializes in innovative shoots, particularly album covers for local musicians. With curatorial experience at Northern Contemporary Gallery in Toronto and Union Gallery in Kingston, Maggie embraces the dual role of artist and curator, creating immersive experiences that transform art into dynamic conversations.

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Alyce Soulodre is a queer visual artist living in Katarokwi-Kingston, on the unceded territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Huron-Wendat. She earned her Ph.D. in English at Queen's University, where she explored monstrosity from Victorian novels to 1980s horror films. In her art practice, she mainly works in coloured pencil, watercolour, and acrylic gouache, and focuses on the weird and wonderful of the natural world and popular culture. Her work reflects her fascination with creatures and plants of all kinds, especially those that are overlooked. She aims to share her love of the strange and unusual, and her appreciation for oft-neglected creatures. She serves on the Board of Directors at Union Gallery.

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Kellyann Marie is a queer transient responding to poverty and seeking a life in the in-between by creating pockets of home, through community, through sex work, and through honouring the ephemera found there. By celebrating the second hand (second hand in that there is a proverbial hand to hold in objects from having been held), they work to connect queer life-art-home-godliness. Navigating life in a tent spread from the Southern U.S to the jagged rocks on the island of Ktaqmkuk, Kellyann embraces oversharing and tenderness to honor the handmade skills that make life in poverty possible. The resulting work is paintings and textiles layered with personal narrative, meeting functional objects glorious in their usefulness -always centering the mark of the hand (to be thankful to have hands and that they would be so sweet as to leave a kiss on everything they might touch).

They are currently completing a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies at Queen's University, holds a SSHRC funded MFA from Memorial University of Newfoundland, a BFA from Florida State University, has presented at the University Arts Association of Canada (UAAC) and has exhibited nationally and internationally.

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Kelsey is a multidisciplinary artist living in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. They hold an MFA from Concordia University and a BFA from NSCAD University and have exhibited their work in Canada, the US, and Ireland. They are the Print Media and Photography Technician in Fine Arts at Memorial University’s Grenfell Campus and have a practice focusing on print, fibres, and performance. 

Kelsey has a keen interest in bringing sustainability to the materials with which they practice, leading to the adoption of techniques like fur processing, leather tanning, natural dyeing and pigment making, scavenging, and upcycling. Their current work explores femme and queer histories in fishing, hunting and trapping practices. As an avid angler, hunter and licensed trapper, they consider the cultural, domestic and economical significance of each act. They reflect on the ethics of their actions as a settler on unceded Mi’kima’ki land.

Through the use of craft techniques taught to them by their mother and grandmothers, Kelsey reflects on functionality and its in(ability) to blur aesthetic value. They develop imagery composed of figures emerging from a natural environment, like smoothed rocks protruding from the dirt. These images illustrate socially driven narratives while pointing inward at personal doubts and prolonged dysmorphia. 

It is the land that shapes the people.

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Arshi is both a dedicated artist and a passionate arts educator, enriching communities in both Kingston and the GTA. While specializing in Sculpture during her BFA, she thrived on exploring a variety of artistic media such as textiles, clay and oil painting. Through her art, Arshi delves into the depths of her experiences, seeking understanding and appreciation for all life has to offer. Her work serves as a medium for personal introspection, inviting viewers to connect and reflect on their own journeys. But also, art just makes her feel good. Simple!

With a focus on personal narrative, the passage of time, and themes of childhood, curiosity, and family, Arshi aims to create immersive pieces that resonate with audiences. Furthermore, she is committed to expressing feelings of familiarity, liminality, and the BIPOC experience, as well as the concept of home and family, driving her artistic practice forward.

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Linghui is a multidisciplinary visual artist, exploring the intersection of comics, war history, and the experiences of women. Through illustrations and storytelling, her works seek to ignite conversations, evoke empathy, and provoke introspection.

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Ann is a Kingston-based artist. She paints close-up or abstracted views of natural subjects such as reflections in water, fruits and flowers, the human form and face. Her media include watercolour, acrylic, and oil. Ann’s art practice is based on creating a narrative or mood within a painting through colour and composition. With each painting, there is a dance between Ann, the colour palette, and the arrangement of elements on the picture plane. Each artwork is an adventure with triumphs and challenges along the way.

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Jill Glatt is a Katarokwi/Kingston Ontario-based illustrator, printmaker, arts educator, and French Immersion teacher with the Limestone District School Board. Her artistic practice is based around and informed by ecology, community, and sustainability. She has developed and delivered programming for the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning, Kingston Arts Council, Centre Culturel Frontenac, Cultivate Art Commons, Union Gallery, Kingston School of Art, and the Juvenis Festival. Jill is also the Volunteer Coordinator for the Skeleton Park Arts Festival and sits on their board of directors as President.

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Géorgie Gagné is an artist, educator, author and activist with a Cree and Franco-Quebecois heritage, who is dedicated to integrating intersectional approaches, Indigenous perspectives, intentionality and care within the communities of Turtle Island.

After studying communications, she quickly became involved in non-profit organizations to connect with her communities and share her expertise. Over the years, she has worked with outdoor youth, newcomers, minority Francophone communities, 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, NAMG communities, and disability rights organizations. Her work and dedication to societal change have been recognized by several organizations, including the FCFA, the Franco-Ontarian Foundation, The Bloom, and FrancoQueer.

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Sarah Jihae Kaye is an artist specializing in printmaking, sculpture, and performance. Kaye was born at Mount Sinai (Hospital) on a Sunday. She has spelled curses in her alphabet soup from a young age, and continues to do so to this day. She thinks about borders a lot. Kaye has received her B.Ed. as well as her BFAH from Queen’s University. She contracted Lyme disease in Nova Scotia and is now collecting ticks for retribution with the Laboratory of Geographic Information and Spatial Analysis.