Fine Arts Educator + Arts Management Consultant.
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Artist Biography
Stephanie Strugar is Manitoba’s Trainer for Cultural Human Resources Council, Maintaining Respectful Arts Workplaces. As a Trainer, she educated arts and cultural organizations on how to create safer spaces for artists and arts administrators across all disciplines. She is the founding board member and Artistic Director of Difie Inc. (www.difiedance.org) Manitoba’s 1st cross-cultural dance and wellness not for profit organization, a not for profit focused on removing barriers to performing and education services for performers with disabilities. She has served as a governance Board of Director with Arts Accessibility Network of Manitoba, and is the owner of Difinity Dance Studio & Productions (www.ddsp.ca), and ArtWithSas Consulting. She has completed several business programs including Make A Change Canada’s Business Abilities program for entrepreneurs with a disability and has a rich career in management in retail and hospitality. As a visual and performing artist-entrepreneur with a disability her goal is to empower those working in the arts trade with practical tools for creating “safer spaces”. In spring 2020 Stephanie joined LEAN Arts Canada as a consultant to offer services to arts and culture organisations who are re-structuring their organisation due to COVID-19. To live is the rarest thing in the world. |
Artist 2017-2020 Collection of Works Statement:
I invite you to tour the world through my works, and discover the glorious colors hidden in the spirit of people, nature and animals from various cultures. My hope is that you will experience joy, healing, and inspiration from my work. I am a person with a learning and physical disability which has greatly shaped my work. My paintings and sculptures use up-cycled materials, neon (glow) paint that changes depending on the light it is exposed under. I feel this is a reflection of my journey as a mother of 3 year old and how I experienced pregnancy. post partum recovery, and parenting as a person with a disability. My paintings showcase how there is more than meets the eye if you are willing to look at art "life" from a different perspective. In 2016 I gave birth to my son, and became an Artist Mother, and was inspired to create. During my pregnancy I created 15 paintings that expressed the emotional and physical awakening that I experienced that gave me life alternating perspectives on the kind of human I wanted to become. It also gave me a desire to reach out to moms. and people with disabilities to show them the empowerment and healing that can come from engaging in art activities. In 2017 I joined Arts and Accessibility Network of Manitoba as a Board Member with the goal of creating more performance arts and fashion initiatives that include mentor ship, and exhibit opportunities for artist mothers with disabilities. In 2019 myself, and a board of directors established Manitoba's 1st non-profit dance and fitness education company dedicated to expanding inclusive dance education for person's with disabilities across M.B. Currently I serve as the Artistic Director, and my goal is to remove barriers and create opportunities for dance artists with disabilities to be educated and perform cross-cultural dance. To learn more visit: www.difiedance.org I have now created over 50 paintings that I will be exhibiting online SOON due to current COVID-19 social distancing limitations. For upcoming dates please subscribe to my facebook/ instagram/ and RSS feed. |
