Laura Leif is heading off to other exciting adventures – but not without first passing off the torch to somebody amazing! We are delighted to announce that Ryan Von Hagen will be taking over the role of Programming Director beginning in August. Ryan has been teaching with us here for the past 2 years, and we all love his passion for animation, his spot-on intuition for the position, and his belief in Quickdraw and our community. 

RYAN VON HAGEN
Ryan Von Hagen is an Animator, Filmmaker, Sound Designer and Musician living in Calgary Alberta. Ryan Graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2012 from the Media Arts and Digital Technology department. Ryan has put time into working on feature length documentaries, AFA funded short animated films, theatre productions as well as Fine Art shows. He has a wide technical background in the world of animation, as he is proficient in stop motion animation, hand drawn animation, cutout animation, rotoscope animation, as well as animated green screen techniques. Ryan has been teaching with Quickdraw for the past 2 years,  as well as coordinating the Portable Animation Workshop. 

(We should also note that we recognize that this makes us an all cis white male office. We’re using it as a good reminder to revisit and strengthen our safe spaces policies, including training for all staff and instructors at Quickdraw).