Jugpreet Bajwa

(Artist-In-Residence)

My musical journey began at the age of five which evolved into a lifelong passion despite facing the adversity of Eye Cancer, to which I lost both my eyes. With a degree in Indian Classical Music and a Diploma in Western Classical Music, I’ve received guidance from renowned mentors across diverse musical genres and can sing in 16 languages. My accomplishments include triumphs in international singing contests besides performing in over 1000 shows globally and judging musical competitions.

Beyond music, I’m deeply engaged in philanthropic efforts, advocating for topics such as disabilities and mental health. I’ve represented Canada at FICCI Frames in India, received honours like the Darpan Awards for Breaking Barriers, the Drishti Award for Innovation in Arts, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Release of numerous albums and singles in various genres and languages reflect my life’s mission: spreading love and peace through music globally.

Felicia Byron

(Artist-In-Residence)

Felicia Byron (she/her) is a Caribbean-Canadian multidisciplinary artist and photographer living and working in Toronto, Canada. Byron has studied at OCAD University and holds a Certificate of Fine Art and Commercial Portraiture from Spéos International Photography School. As a Black woman and neurodivergent artist living with cerebral palsy, Byron explores themes of identity and community as it relates to the African diasporic and to the disabled experience.

Byron’s work, often employs series as a format to evoke a sense of belonging and shared experience. Byron employs a cinematic approach to creating still imagery, through the use light, colour, wardrobe, prop and set design elements to build worlds, weave stories and evoke feelings of familiarity.

*photo by Ishmil Waterman

https://www.feliciabyron.com

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Connor Derraugh

(Artist-In-Residence)

Music has always been front row center in my life. In 2010, at 15 years old, I suffered a traumatic brain hemorrhage during routine surgery that initially paralyzed the right side of my body. Despite this setback, I remained determined. I’m a graduate of the University of Manitoba Jazz Studies program with a double major in sax and piano.

I’ve performed at various events including the Winnipeg Jazz Festivals, the Asper Jazz Series, and the 2018 and 2019 Downtown Concert Series. As well, I’m a regular performer with the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra. I am an EA at a local high school with their band.

https://cdmusic.ca/stories/

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Danielle Hyde

(Artist-In-Residence)

Danielle Hyde is a multi-disciplinary Tkaronto Treaty 13 Indigenous artist of with lived experience of an invisible mental health disability. Her artwork spans many mediums including new media, murals, painting, photography and installations mixed with performance. Anchoring her practice and process in  the decolonialization of deep transformative accessibility, she centers generosity and ethical relationality in every creative action. She engages all Art as a collaboration, a cocreation. She consciously connects with Art’s fundamental generosity and acknowledge partnerships with the Land, our first art teacher. Art is alive and aware when it is being observed it opens windows of understanding to speak with the viewer. In such conversations when grounded by ethical relationality we can engage Art in dialogues that re-member those things that keep us whole. She collaborates with all beings– seen and unseen, human and beyond-human in a creative chorus to tell these stories that live in community. By creating windows of understanding grounded in generosity, we can grow those critical good places and from within Art and community to flourish together. In dialogue as four-dimensional beings of hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits, we co-create decolonial ecologies of community and accessibility.

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Candace Lipischak

(Artist-In-Residence)

Candace Lipischak is a multidisciplinary artist and Métis workshop facilitator. Born and raised on Treaty 1 territory, they are inspired by nature and their French Red River Métis-Polish background.

Self-taught, their visual art work may be connected to outsider art often illustrating unconventional ideas and materials.

Candace is fluent in both French and English

https://www.candacelipischak.com 

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Photo credit: Thomas Buchan

Pauline Aitken

(Touring Artist)

Pauline produces mainly two-dimensional work, including painting, mixed media, print and light-box images. Digital montages, up to large-format in scale, are created by combining drawing and print, photographs and micrographs. The work reflects upon the inter-dependence and inter-relationship of life forms on our planet and our place within this.

She studied painting and printmaking at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London, including postgraduate studies in printmaking. She followed with part-time teaching posts and a lectureship in BA Design, Anglia Polytechnic University. She lives and works in Suffolk, England.

Since 2017, Pauline’s latest work has been a collaboration with the American poet Christine Stewart Nuñez.

https://www.brightcolors.com/product-category/pauline-aitken/

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Christine Stewart

(Touring Artist)

Christine Stewart, who writes as Christine Stewart-Nuñez, is the author of seven books of poetry and a book of essays. Christine’s primary relationship to disability is as the parent of a child with disability, particularly of the intellectual/neurological variety. In her creative work, she explores themes of motherhood in relationship to disability, especially in Bluewords Greening (Terrapin Books 2016)—winner of the 2018 Whirling Prize (literature of disability theme). Christine, who served as South Dakota’s poet laureate from 2019-2021, is currently finishing up a memoir and collaborating with visual artists in the U.S. and U.K. on ekphrastic projects and exhibits. She is a professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies program at the University of Manitoba, where she teaches Feminisms and Disability in Contemporary Literature, and next year she will be splitting her professorship between WGS and Disability Studies.

https://www.christinestewartnunez.com

Natalie Sluis

(Touring Artist)

Natalie Sluis is a hard of hearing performing artist based in Winnipeg, on Treaty 1 Land. She is a graduate of the Professional Program of the School of Contemporary Dancers. Natalie’s artistic practice includes dance, choreography, singing, and acting. She started her performance career in theatre, film, and artistic gymnastics at a young age where she

Natalie is now fully engaged in the artistic beauty of contemporary dance, and it has become her life’s passion. She has completed multiple professional projects in both choreography and dance.

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https://aanm.ca/natalie-sluis-i-am-i/

Leslie Roman

(Touring Artist, Director)

Professor Leslie G. Roman, Educational Studies, UBC has throughout her career led inspiring transformative spaces for disability artists, cultural politics and public pedagogies that reshape institutional ideas of who belongs and whose knowledge matters. As the inspired lead of Wingspan Dis/ability Arts, Culture cluster and prior to that in 2008, the Unruly Salon, she seeks to create spaces for interdisciplinary scholars and artists whose work exceeds the narrow metrics of “excellence” to redefine humanity.

 A Killam Fellow and AESA book award winner, she is the editor of Hallmarks: The Cultural Politics and Public Pedagogies of Stuart Hall, Routledge, 2016.  Her work in disability arts with Geoff McMurchy and many others led to three special issues in the International Review of Disability Studies, the International Journal of Inclusive Education and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. An acrylic painter, poet. and jewelry-maker and aspiring film-maker, editor and director. Her paintings and poetry have been published in the aforementioned journals. Most importantly, she is the mom of a beautiful pre-teen son whose energy keeps her on her toes.

Prof. Roman identifies as a Jewish artist with an invisible disability, from a working-class background, who lives in a Canadian family from the global diaspora of Nepal, Eastern Europe and Latino Texas and Chicago.

Photo credit: Felicia Byron

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Jenel Shaw

(Touring Artist, Staff)

Jenel Shaw is a self-taught visual artist. Her artistic focus is learning new ways to craft and explore artistic expression. Jenel graduated with her masters in Disability Studies from the University of Manitoba. Her dissertation, An Autoethnological Study of Art as a Tool of Empowerment, examined her own experiences with mental illness and disability art. Jenel is executive director of Arts AccessAbility Network Manitoba and the sensory and content reviewer for Prairie Theatre Exchange  . Jenel serves on many arts boards including being the Co-Chair of the Manitoba Artist-Run Centre Coalition and the Liaison Director for the Manitoba Cultural Society of the Deaf. Jenel is a strong advocate for the d/Deaf and disabilty arts community and provides anti-ablesit training for the arts 

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Thomas Buchan

(Filmography Staff)

Thomas Buchan is a respected professional in the world of film and cinematography. He excelled in his film studies at Emily Carr University, where he was named valedictorian. Thomas has played dual roles as a Director and Director of Photography (DOP) in several feature documentaries, collaborating with organizations like the National Film Board (NFB), CBC, and the Knowledge Network.

Beyond his documentary work, Thomas is in high demand as a Director of Photography, producing commercial content with well-known global brands, agencies, and local charitable foundations.

Daniel Rocque

(Filmography Staff)

Daniel Rocque has been working as a freelance cinematographer, director, and editor from Vancouver for the past 14 years. His experience ranges  from commercials to television series, EPKs, corporate case studies, feature films, and music videos both on location and in studio. Dan is quick to adapt to any kind of production style and/or work-flow. His love for composition and narrative is apparent in his work as he weaves the two together to create emotional, impactful videos. Daniel has also produced, directed, and edited various short-form narrative projects that have screened at festivals in North America and Europe.

Marcus Zuhr

(Filmography Staff)

Marcus Zuhr is a multifaceted artist, encompassing the roles of composer, dedicated metal enthusiast, film director, and accomplished producer. With a career spanning since 2009, he boasts an impressive portfolio, having collaborated with renowned brands like Disney, as well as smaller-scale student film projects.

Marcus’s musical compositions have become a consistent presence on the world’s largest networks and streaming platforms, including Netflix, Amazon, and numerous major networks within the United States. His work has also resonated internationally, finding a home on networks such as NBC, CBS, ESPN, and WWE.

In the advertising arena, Marcus has left an indelible mark, with his music being licensed or commissioned by prestigious brands such as Intel, Disney, Honda, the Royal Bank of Canada, GAP, Nature’s Path, Best Buy, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and many others.

Brian Cheung

(Filmography Staff)

 Brian Cheung is a Cinematographer based in Vancouver with over ten years of experience in commercials, corporate work, and documentaries. Recently, he has served as the Director of Photography on the independent feature film “Jonah” (2022), which has been making its festival rounds at the 2023 Austin Film Festival, 2023 Twin Cities Film Festival, and the 2023 Flickers’ Rhode Island Film Festival. He has also worked as an additional camera operator on Season 5 of “The Good Doctor.”

ACTOR: James Sanders, BFA SFU, is the Founding Artistic Director of Realwheels. James’ professional career includes acting, writing, and producing for stage and screen. Quadriplegic from a spinal cord injury, James is committed to positive and accurate representations of disability in the media. He has written and performed for screen, TV and plays all over Canada. See a link to his recent interview for Wingspan on CTV. He is working with Cross-Town Elementary-K-7, Lord Roberts’ Annex-K-3 and Elsie Roy K-7 Elementary students.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Cathy Browne is a lifestyle, travel and events photographer, public relations professional and vice- chair of the Persons with Disabilities Advisory Committee for the City of Vancouver, who happens to be legally blind. Her camera captures a world she doesn’t see. She is working with Elsie Roy Elementary students.

COMEDIAN /ACTOR /WRITER: is a writer, inspirational humorist, and actor, who is best known for his signature show, The Church of 80% Sincerity. The show transforms the challenges and gifts of living with a facial difference into a compelling message that uplifts and delights audience around the world. David works with youth around the world in classrooms internationally from the White House to CNN, from the Sydney Olympics to schools in North America. He has performed in schools and worked with students at every age level throughout the US, Australia, the UK, Canada and all over Europe. He is working with Elsie Roy Elementary and Lord Roberts’ Elementary schools and students.

SINGER/SONGWRITER: Sarah Jickling is a Canadian indie singer/songwriter who lives with bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, OCD, and PTSD. Sarah performs across the country with her band, My Good Bad Luck. Over the past few years, Sarah’s whimsical indie- pop songs have been featured on radio stations across the country and in independent films. Sarah uses her music to spread mental health awareness and has opened up about her experiences with Bipolar Disorder and Anxiety Disorder on the radio, local television, podcasts, blogs, and live speaking events. She has performed at numerous Wingspan events, including at the CULTCH for International Women’s Day, March 8, 2018 and the Hatch Gallery. She is working with Dellview Secondary students.

VISUAL ARTIST: Richard Harlow is a painter and photographer with a visual impairment whose works include tactile media to experience through touch, and hung at universal height, which is accessible for wheelchair users. Richard fuels his art with activism as a direct response to his experience of living with blindness. His tactile paintings eliminate the barriers in the art world created by so-called abled bodies for the able-bodied. He wants to show that no person has limits to what they can accomplish and that having a disability is not the end. It’s only the beginning of a new chapter. He is working with École Ladner students.