Emebet Belete
Artist Educator
All around me kids were living plants vs. zombies: trading cards, playing games and talking as if zombies were the most natural thing in the world.
When we pick up tin cans and pizza boxes, clay, scraps of paper and paint brushes, when we draw arcs and fold books page by page, when we look around for new tools to describe a world full of possibilities we are artists. My job is to help children discover that.
Plants vs. Zombies, Grade 1 and 2 Students' Clay Work, Teda International School, 2011
Teaching
Ontario Arts Council Education Grants
Artists in Communities and Schools
2017- Present
Arts Education Projects
2016-2017
Artists in Education
2015-2016
Elementary Art Teacher
Teda International School
2008-2013
Greek Community School of Addis
Ababa
1995-1997
Indian Community School of Addis
Ababa
1996-1997
Emebet is an OCT qualified teacher with years' teaching experience. She was the elementary art teacher at Teda International School for five years. For the past 10 years she has given art workshops with the Hastings and Prince Edward District and the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Boards, reaching over 1,500 elementary students in local schools. Whether teaching in schools or in her own classes, she immerses children and adults in the art of creating. You can see her students' projects in Bay of Quinte schools, or read about them on her blog.
Emebet has been passionate about teaching art ever since creating the Friendship of Woman Artists, an organization dedicated to bringing art experiences to public school students in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. As an art teacher, she believes that making art and belonging to a creative community are important for everyone, and that all children can create art with the right support.
Emebet is also currently working with adults through free crochet workshops in locations in Belleville and Kingston. You can read more about these workshops here.