Executive Director – Peter Hemminger

Peter Hemminger has spent nearly two decades immersed in Calgary’s arts community, as a freelance journalist, an editor at Fast Forward Weekly, a programmer at the Calgary International Film Festival, a DJ at CJSW 90.9FM and a volunteer at Sled Island, the Calgary Folk Music Festival, the Calgary Underground Film Festival and more. Anything that lets him spend all his time thinking about movies and music, two obsessions he refuses to grow out of.

A lifelong animation fan, he excited to lead Quickdraw through its fourth decade as a centre for the production and appreciation of the best that the medium can offer. Plus, he’s secretly pretty happy to finally put his business degree to use.

Contact: peter@quickdrawanimation.ca

Programming Director – Ryan Von Hagen

Ryan Von Hagen is an animator, editor, filmmaker, sound designer and musician living in Calgary, Alberta. Ryan received a BFA from the Alberta College of Art & Design through the Media Arts and Digital Technology department in 2012. Since then, he has worked on feature length documentaries, AFA-funded short animated films, and theatre productions, and has had his work displayed in Fine Art exhibitions. He has a wide technical background in the world of animation, as he is proficient in stop-motion, hand-drawn, cutout, and rotoscope animation, as well as green screen techniques. Ryan has been teaching animation with Quickdraw for the past 3 years through the Portable Animation Workshop as well as the adult classes.

Contact: programming@quickdrawanimation.ca

Production Director – Tyler Klein Longmire

Tyler is an animator, illustrator, designer of various media, and a film and theatre maker based on Calgary AB. He has been working as a freelance artist since 2010, and became staff at Quickdraw in the spring of 2014 after hanging out there forever. He makes stuff for a living – puppet shows, music videos, illustrations, video designs for live performance, animations, strange elaborate machines, art installations, etc. Tyler is a founding member of Humble Wonder, a network of curious artists exploring the aesthetic space where the performing arts, animation, technology, and intimacy intersect – sometimes we do performances! In addition to jobbin’ for Quickdraw he has worked for the High Performance Rodeo, Telus SPARK Science Centre, Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre Junction, Sage Theatre, Apparition Theatre, Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre, music video director Doug Cook, and is keeping up with his own studio practice. He holds a degree in Theatre Directing from the University of Victoria, but all the shows he directed were basically cartoons anyway. Check out his portfolio at tklongmire.com !

Tyler thinks Quickdraw is one of the most amazing, unique places in North America, and is keen to extend its resources, knowledge bank, and opportunities to the thriving Calgary arts scene. Shoot him an email about your project, he’s here to help you make it happen!

Contact: production@quickdrawanimation.ca

Outreach and Education Coordinator — Mihaela Slabé

Mihaela is a local artist and animator currently creating in Calgary. She graduated from the Alberta University of the Arts in 2015 and has since been working as an Art Coordinator for Adults with Disabilities. In 2016 she received the Chris J. Melnychuk scholarship from Quickdraw and created her first animated short “Tides” that premiered at the 2018 GIRAF. Through this connection, she has taught multiple Portable Animation Workshops at numerous schools and has facilitated animation and art workshops to people from various backgrounds and abilities. Mihaela is passionate about the magic of animation and sees it as a powerful form of storytelling that everybody can and should have access to.

Check out her art insta @selcouth_moon_animation

Contact: education@quickdrawanimation.ca

Librarian – Jean-Francois Cote

Jean Francois is a man of mystery. We just know he keeps the world of Quickdraw’s extensive and wonderous Library under control, and that he’s been around longer than anyone knows.

Contact: librarian@quickdrawanimation.ca