Our Team

Daphne Tate – is a Semiahmoo Arts Director and past acting Vice-President. She is also past President and Director of Semiahmoo Potters Society and an accomplished potter and painter. Daphne has been working closely with the ED and board to keep SA operational over the last 2 years and was instrumental in our recent reopening members show. She is a long-time local business owner and brings her wealth of business knowledge, her organizational experience, new ideas and her passion to the Board. Daphne is looking forward to Semiahmoo Arts reopening and reconnecting with the Community. Daphne has been on the SAS board for 5 years.

Helmut Gruntorad – is the recipient of the 2019 arts council of Surrey’s outstanding service to the arts award. He trained in Vienna, Austria, is a gold and silversmith and an accomplished photographer. Helmut also brings graphic design and trade show construction to the group. He has been a board member since 2020 and is currently working on our website, safety plan and protocols.

Betty Han- is the Community Engagement Partner at University of British Columbia. She has more than 10 years of experience in marketing, operations and project management. Betty holds a bachelor’s degree in Arts and recently completed her MBA at SFU Beedie. While originally born in Taiwan, Betty moved to Israel and then later on India. In 2010 she settled into the beautiful White Rock area with her husband and son. Betty has been exposed to a diverse array of perspectives and has developed a love for experiencing new cultures, arts and ways of life. Fueled by a desire to contribute to her community and her passion for arts, she is looking forward to strengthening the arts in our local community.

Stephanie Beck – is the Executive Director of the Peace Arch Community Health Foundation and has past associations with the Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation, Playhouse Theatre Company, and Vancouver Opera Association. Although starting out in the Fine Arts program at Capilano College, Stephanie realized quickly that she was better at organizing artists than practicing art, so she changed her direction to strengthen her business and fundraising skills. She brings to the board an extensive background in fundraising, strategic planning, budgeting, governance, and operational management as well as 25 years with not-for-profit organizations. We look forward to Stephanie joining our team.

Executive Director

I have just re-joined the SAS team as Executive Director, having served on the Board for 6 years until the beginning of COVID-19. I am deeply committed to our mandate of ‘Arts for All’ and strengthening the place of SAS in our community.
With over 20 years of experience in non-profit and educational organizations in both Canada and the United States, I bring a passion for the role of community agencies in wellness and educational arenas. With an MA in Art Education and a PhD in Transformative Learning Communities, I have both theoretical and practice experience in our role as a community arts council. My own arts practice is photo based multimedia. I do this work alongside my practice as a clinical counsellor and post-secondary educator.

Senior Ceramic Technician

Amiee Risby is from British Columbia and was born in the city of Surrey and finished her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Kwantlen Polytechnic University spring of 2020. Her practice is focused on ceramics and oil painting. The content of her work deals with anatomical studies that convey the uncertainties of everyday life with a colourful palate and a conversation between forms and materials. The main themes developed are concentrated on psychoanalysis and how the mind can manifest physically onto the body through figurative representations that include a variety of identifiably forms of the female body and various orifices.

While pursuing her education she has been involved with many community associations including the Guild of BC Ceramics, the Kwantlen Art Collective, and the Fraser Valley Potters Guild. Risby has recently completed an Artist in Residency Program at the Shadbolt Center for the Arts. Risby has received many scholarships including the Maureen wright scholarship, the Margaretha Bootsma award, the Linda Schwarts endowment award, the MISSA bursary and the Kwi Am Choi award. These awards have assisted her in attending a month-long residency at Medalta in Medicine Hat, Alberta during 2016 and a week-long workshop at the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts (MISSA) in 2018. The Kwi Am Choi award funded her first solo exhibition at the Port Moody Arts Center during 2019.

Pottery Technician

Emma Mayer is from British Columbia and was born in Vancouver. Emma completed her BFA at Emily Carr University of Art & Design, her mediums of choice are ceramics, painting and digital art. Her practice is focused around connecting the clay body and surface together within her work and using illustrations as a means of communicating and interpreting the world around her. The main themes currently explored in her work are concentrated on the natural world and different types of mythology.

Mayer has always loved that pictures are a global way of communicating, it’s something that people of all languages and ages can interpret and understand in their own way. Mayer likes to use bold expressive colours in her work while transforming the ceramic canvas with a mixture of illustration and sculpture.

After her recent graduation from Emily Carr, Emma has been working on her practice in her home studio while selling work online. Mayer has been awarded the DTES Small Artist Grantin 2021 to fund her project called ‘The Hastings Project’. Mayer has had her ceramic work shown at a group exhibition called “From Ground To table” in 2020 and also had her illustrative work displayed on Fraser Street in Vancouver for the ‘Transit Shelter Art Show’ in 2021.

Moving forward Mayer would like to continue her studies either pursuing an MFA or her Bachelor of Education. As for the near future, she is interested in further developing her practice by doing a residency.

Web and Digital Communications Coordinator

Michael Song is an Interactive Arts and Technology student at Simon Fraser University focusing on Media Arts such as digital artworks consists of custom vector graphics using Adobe Creative Suite. He is passionate about the use of neat and elegant typography to form a harmony with the graphics for a clean and minimalistic feeling.