Jumblies makes art in everyday and extraordinary places with, for and about the people and stories found there, creating transient utopias and far-reaching ripples.
Tuija Hansen is a textile artist living and working in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Hansen studied felting, dying, and embroidery at Kootenay School of Arts school of craft and design and printmaking at Lakehead University. Her works of art depict place and location, physically and conceptually. Hansen’s practice is strongly influenced by her boreal forest surrounding; as such she incorporates organic, found matter into textile works. Working with traditional textile mediums allow the possibility to engage with her Finnish ancestry via meditative, concentrated, and tactile processes while reflecting on the significance of place, migration, and location. In 2018 she was awarded a National and International Residency Projects grant (OAC), which, allowed her to travel to Iceland and learn Scandinavian textile practices in preparation for future works. Hansen is traveling to Finland in 2019, to study Finnish weaving techniques in preparation for a forthcoming body of work that centres her family’s migratory history via hand-dyed, handwoven, works of art.
CLAIRE MCMILLAN
Claire is an artist, costumer and seamstress from Toronto specializing in reproduction and fashion history. She has worked with Arts in the Parks, Ad Hoc Collective, CFC, En[LIVE]n Productions, Spur of the Moment Shakespeare Collective, and PULP Paper Art party. Recently she costumed two sold out runs for Theatre by the Bay in Barrie, one based on early British settlements, and the other on the famous Molson Brewery illegal grow-op. She is interested in using textile to explore the gap between people with multi-generational connections to where they live and those who grew up in a different place than they live now.
MIRANDA BOUCHARD
Miranda Bouchard is an Algoma-based visual/community artist, arts manager, and independent curator. She brings an educational background in studio art and art history (White Mountain Academy of the Arts, Elliot Lake; University of Guelph; University of Applied Science Institute of Fine Arts, Finland) and 10+ years varied professional experience in the arts and cultural sector to her role as Acting Artistic Director of Thinking Rock Community Arts. Recipient of the 2019 Algoma Visionary Award for Arts & Culture, Miranda is currently pursuing studies in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Management (Ryerson University), and mentorship in Artistic Direction with Ruth Howard of Jumblies Theatre.
TIJANA SPASIC
Tijana Spasic is a Toronto-based theatre creator, director, producer and installation artist, currently working with Jumblies Theatre (thanks to the Metcalf Foundation). She has led several large-scale community engaged arts projects, in parks, schools, libraries, and other site-specific and traditional venues and has worked with Mammalian Diving Reflex, The Milkweed Collective, bcurrent Theatre and has created projects for: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Powerplant Gallery, Nuit Blanche and The Luminato Festival among others. She co-ran the Mashed Collective for three years, and The Living Room Festival. Many of her projects explore the city’s economic disparity, the suburban-downtown divide and questions of belonging, home and memory. She speaks Serbian and Russian.
ALEJANDRA NUÑEZ
Alejandra Nuñez is a vocalist, percussionist, composer and mother to Natalia and Mathew. Born in Santiago Chile, Alejandra has lived and worked as a musician in Canada and the United States, she has performed in Europe as well as North and Central America. Her training on percussion has taken her to Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, New York and Egypt. Band leader of Latin Jazz Band Projecto Urbano Self titeled CD with Mano Music. Alejandra has performed with The Toronto Dance Theater and written scores for various plays, including Djanet Sears Adventures of A Black Girl in Search of God (Dora MD Nomination) MD Trey Anthony’s The Kink in My Hair, Score, Soundscape, MD Michael Miller’s The Power of Harriet T!
BINAESHEE-QUAE COUCHIE-NABIGON
Binaeshee-Quae (Loon Clan) is a singer songwriter, actor; and community arts enthusiast from Biigtigong First Nation. She works with many different mediums but the voice is the “heart of her art”. Binaeshee-Quae has been singing since she can remember; “My mom says when I was a baby, she would hold me & sing one steady note and I would sing back. She swears we harmonized. Binaeshee-Quae performs jazzy-alterna-folk & onomatopoeically crafted lyrics. Her first full length album “Ooof” was released in 2013 & she plans a follow-up release in the coming year. Binaeshee-Quae has been involved in community arts as a presenter, artist, workshop facilitator & volunteer since 2009. She has worked professionally for community arts organizations such as Aanmitaagzi-S(He) Speaks (2011-2017) and Jumblies (2017) where she assists in music, theatre, dance & visual arts activities.
