Our Board of Directors
Meet our team at Richmond Arts Council!
Susan Stolberg
CACR President
Susan Stolberg has enjoyed being involved in music from an early age. Susan is a pianist, plays classical guitar and is a choir member of the Richmond Chorus. She is an enthusiastic advocate of the Arts who values her role in promoting the Arts to continuously enhance and have a positive impact on our community.
Susan has been actively involved with volunteering for over three decades, serving on an array of types of committees. Her interests have led her to those including work related Occupational Health and Safety, and Social Committees.
Susan was also an active member of her children’s’ school communities and activities. She volunteered in administrative roles, involving keeping detailed school library excel spreadsheet documentation, and served as a leader both with the Sparks and Brownies of the Girl Guide organization.
Susan continues to be an active Richmond Chorus member. She was a ROCA Board Director and their Marketing Lead for years.
Her strong communication and organizational skills enhance what she brings to each of the volunteer positions she has had and continues to be involved with presently.
Linda Shirley
CACR Vice-President
Linda’s passion for children and teaching sparked her vision 32 years ago to create an early learning environment and hub of educational and arts-related services for families. As CEO and Head of School for The Arts Connection, which manages “The Arts Conservatory” and “Renaissance Academy of Learning”, she oversees programming for over 500 students weekly in a 26,000 sq ft facility and taught by a staff of over 130. She is the owner and publisher of The Kelly Kirby Introductory Piano Program” and continues to teach piano from her very popular studio.
For 14 years, Linda served on the City of Richmond’s Childcare Development Advisory Committee, serving as Chair for 12 of those years. She has been the recipient of numerous awards over the years including being the only 3-time recipient of the Ethel Tibbits Women in Business Awards, The Richmond Chamber of Commerce “Award of Excellence” and in 2014 she was presented with the City of Richmond’s Arts Education Award. In 2019, The Arts Connection’s 30th anniversary season, she was honoured to be awarded the Richmond Chamber of Commerce “Business Leadership Award”.
In 2011 Linda kicked off the Vancouver Sun’s “Adopt a School” program by developing “Reach to Teach…Immersed in the Arts”. This program brings underserved youth from the downtown eastside to her facility, where coupled with local Richmond youth, students are able to see how, despite socio-economic differences, they can find a commonality in the arts. Through a special and unique partnership of private business with a non-profit (CACR), this ongoing, highly successful program shows how organizations can work together to make a better community.
Ali Burns
CACR Treasurer
Alexandra (Ali) Burns has been a member of the CACR since she was sixteen years old, and joined the Board in 2018. Ali is primarily a visual artist who works in a range of mediums, from ink to textiles to digital media, though she also enjoys the musical arts as an amateur accordionist. She believes that art is for everyone.
Angela Cavadas
CACR Secretary
Angela Cavadas was the recipient of numerous awards early in her musical life, most notably winning First Prize in the CBC Young Artists Competition at the age of nineteen.
Renowned violinists Steven Staryk and Ruggiero Ricci were major mentors in her training and over the course of her distinguished and varied career, she has collaborated with many outstanding instrumentalists and conductors and has participated in hundreds of concerts, of which a number were broadcast nationally.
She has enjoyed the diversity of performing as a soloist and in chamber music concerts, as well as playing for opera, ballet, musical theatre, film recording, and folk dance troupes.
Angela is Associate Concertmaster of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra [VOO] and was Acting Concertmaster for their 2017-18 music season.
She has also played for West Coast Chamber Music since its inception and has worked with the Vancouver Symphony, Vancouver Chamber Choir, Vancouver Island Symphony, Lions Gate Sinfonia, Chilliwack Symphony, and the now-defunct CBC Radio Orchestra. Angela was the violin instructor for the University Transfer Program at Douglas College for forty years and currently teaches violin and piano privately and for the Arts Conservatory in Richmond, BC.
Michael Shirley
CACR Board Director
Since the age of seventeen, Michael has been actively involved in the arts in a variety of ways. For 32 years he specialized in visual merchandising, display and administration with a national retail chain and received numerous awards from national corporations for his work. For the past 31 years, he has beenco-owner, with his wife Linda, of The Arts Connection’s “Arts Conservatory” and “Renaissance Academy of Learning”. Michael has studied painting with Joyce Kamikura, Brent Heighton and Toni Onley and over the years he has taught drawing and painting to children and adults. Now retired, he continues to paint, with many of his pieces on display at The Arts Connection. He has been the recipient of numerous awards from The Community Arts Council’s Midsummer Arts Dream Show and he has been selected several times to participate in ArtRich a the Richmond Art Gallery. Until its closure in 2011, Michael was the Manager of “Artisans’ Galleria’, the Community Arts Council’s retail outlet representing BC artists which operated at various locations in Richmond. Although Michael’s health and mobility issues pose certain restraints, he is able to provide valuable feedback on various CACR projects, he continues to paint for various fundraising projects and enjoys ‘sitting the shows’ at the annual Midsummer Arts Dream event.
Teresa Larrea
CACR Board Director
Teresa is originally from Ecuador and moved to Canada seven years ago to develop her artistic practice and study. She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Arts and Design and now teaches at the Arts Conservatory in Richmond.
Teresa helps others communicate and explore their creativity by expanding their visual language. She expresses herself freely through her paintings, sculptures, and prints. Anthropology, film, and nature always capture her attention and inspire her.
Since moving away from her home country, it has become very evident to Teresa the importance of a vibrant, welcoming community. She has been involved in multiple community-based organizations and plans to continue developing inspiring projects with the community.
Andrea Paterson
CACR Board Director
Andrea Paterson has been involved in the arts from a very young age, her first passions being violin, music theatre, and visual arts. She graduated from an arts focused highschool and went on to complete post secondary education in literature, with an MA from UBC.
In her visual art practice Andrea works primarily in watercolour, coloured pencil, and digital media, but she has explored a wide variety of artforms including Ukrainian Pysanky (wax relief painted eggs), needle felting, knitting, and photography. She is also the lead singer and violinist in local Steveston band, Georgia and the Coho.
While she has never pursued a professional career in the arts, artistic practice has remained a central part of her life, and remains an oasis amidst the busyness of raising a family. She is particularly interested in art as a tool to support mental health and she brings this perspective to her work as a perinatal counsellor. She has developed a program called The Art of Self Care that uses art exercises, journaling, and poetry to explore a variety of common challenges new mothers face in the early postpartum period.
Andrea is passionate about supporting and promoting the arts at a community level. She has previously served on the board of directors with Common Thread (previously Craftworks), a non-profit society based in Vancouver that offers training and employment in sewing and craft to people with social and work barriers. She is looking forward to further engaging with the art community in her home community with the Richmond Arts Council.
Kit Tang
CACR Board Director
With a Master’s in Arts Management (Music Pathway) from the University of Manchester and a Bachelor’s in Arts Management from Nanjing Arts University, my journey has been a vibrant exploration of creativity. Formerly a performing arts agent, I connected venues and artists to craft unforgettable events. A detour led me to Shanghai’s fashion scene, where I seamlessly embraced brand management and offered my fine arts skills as well. For over a decade, I shared the joy of music through piano instruction. Today, as a public servant at Provincial Government of Canada, my heart remains devoted to the arts. I am thrilled to re-immerse myself in the enriching world of arts with CACR.
Linda Zwaga
CACR Board Director
It is an honor to be part of CACR. I am new in Richmond ready to learn and participate in this community.
My curiosity of creating came at an early age of 10. I cut up my dad’s shirt to make a dress for my Barbie doll. My dad admired my talent as he saw his cut up shirt laying on the floor! My first passion was sewing and I advanced from there throughout my life.
I was owner of a craft store and taught crafts and folk art, encouraging all to discover their own talents. I enjoyed making and renting costumes. My highlight was when The Medieval Society praised my period costumes for authenticity and workmanship.
Out of personal interest, I studied Interior Design. For a time, I enjoyed calligraphy and designed a wine menu, event posters, etc.
Quilting, cross-stitching, crochet, refurbishing, restoring furniture, wood cutting and so much more. I guess you can say I am a “Jane-of-all-trades”!
I am looking forward to being an active member of the board.