Join our incoming students participating in Orientation Welcome Days 2020 for a virtual artist talk with AUArts alum and former SA President, Simone Saunders, BFA' 20, Fibre
Join: Orientation Live Feed

Simone's Bio
Simone Elizabeth Saunders is a mixed-race woman of Jamaican and European descent living in Alberta, Treaty 7 Territory. Simone is a visual artist and classically-trained actor. Her practice focuses on rug-tufting to create large, colourful portraits. Simone’s textiles carry narratives through cultural mythology, Black history and personal landscapes; encouraging and aiding in the service of racial emancipation and liberation of Black womanhood. Simone was President of the Students’ Association for the 2018-19 school year at Alberta University of the Arts. She was recognized by the Alberta Government by receiving the Laurence Decore Award for Student Leadership in 2019. Simone graduated with distinction in May 2020 from AUArts.

Selected 2020 awards for Simone include:

• the AUArts’ Board of Governors’ Graduating Student Award Fibre

• the Illingworth Kerr Gallery Award for Academic Achievement

• the Surface Design Association Graduating Student Award.

Most recently Simone was featured on CBC “What’re you at?” with Tom Power, The Calgary Herald, CBC Arts, CBC Radio One, Instagram’s feature Artist, Galleries West, Boooooom, Design Milk, Colossal and The George Washington Textile Museum. Recent exhibitions include the Long Distance Art Series through the Social Distancing Festival and Sled Island and a resident of Field Trip with Contemporary Calgary.