Meet Our CPD Circular Production Design-Build Workshop Cohort
Meet the 18 participants selected for CPD’s inaugural Circular Production Design-Build Workshop, a four-weekend hands-on training program exploring circular design, material reuse and sustainable set-building in Toronto.
We’re excited to introduce the 18 participants selected for the inaugural CPD Circular Production Design-Build Workshop, taking place in Toronto from January 24 to February 15, 2026.
Created as a free, hands-on professional training program, the workshop brings together production designers and art department practitioners to explore circular design, material reuse, sustainable set-building, and production design methodology through the process of designing and building sets together.
Interest in the pilot far exceeded what we anticipated, with applications numbering more than five times the original 12 spots allotted. In response to the overwhelming interest and strength of the applicant pool, we expanded the inaugural cohort to 18 participants. The response demonstrated both the demand for practical art department training and the growing interest in finding more sustainable ways to design and build for film and television.
Meet the Cohort
Our inaugural cohort brings together 18 participants with a wide range of backgrounds, skills, and experience across production design and the art department.
June Charles
June Charles is a Saint Lucian-born Canadian multidisciplinary designer working in film and television, and Production Designer on Village Keeper (TIFF 2024) and Seahorse (SXSW 2026).
Samiramis Kia
Samiramis Kia is an Iranian-Canadian director, writer, and production designer trained in interior architecture, with internationally screened work.
Sophie Duarte
Sophie Duarte is a multimedia artist working across film and television, with experience as a production designer, props master, and set decorator, and a strong focus on hands-on making.
Ashley Frederick
Ashley Frederick is a Toronto-based production designer and art director with screen and commercial credits, focused on creating detailed, story-driven worlds.
Bruno Rocca
Bruno Rocca is a Northern Ontario art director and DGC Ontario member focused on renewable and reusable materials and practical circular workflows.
Emily Bendeck Garay
Emily Bendeck Garay is an emerging production designer with experience in production and locations, exploring circular approaches to screen-based design.
Anne Vo
Anne Vo is a Toronto-based freelance production designer for commercials and music videos who shares her art department journey through social media.
Vladyslava Voloshyna
Vladyslava Voloshyna brings a decade of experience in interior design, millwork, and graphic design, combining drafting and multimedia skills to support circular practice.
Miles Norton
Miles Norton is an art director and set decorator specializing in set decorating, SketchUp, and styling, with a strong interest in reuse and circular design.
Monika Wensel
Monika Wensel is a multidisciplinary designer and maker with an industrial design background, including work as a shoemaker for film and television, now pursuing production design.
Becky Wu
Becky Wu is a multidisciplinary designer working in film art departments with a focus on art direction and production design, creating on-screen graphics, sets, and props.
Sonia Cintra
Sonia Cintra transitioned from assistant directing into the art department as a set decorator and production designer, bringing adaptability across creative environments.
Delia Yuan
Delia Yuan is a Toronto-based production designer and visual artist with a BFA in Theatre Design, creating evocative spaces that reveal character histories and untold stories.
Yulia Yu
Yulia Yu works in set decoration and props across film and television and designs on select projects, with an interest in circular production design rooted in independent production problem-solving.
Liam Cooper
Liam Cooper is a Toronto-based set decorator and Humber College Film and Television Production graduate, building skills through hands-on industry experience.
Natalie Yuen
Natalie Yuen is in her final year of Interior Design at Toronto Metropolitan University, pursuing production design and expanding practical skills from woodworking to 3D modelling.
Nicole Hunter Campbell
Nicole Hunter Campbell is a Toronto-based production designer and owner of Hunter Gatherer Interiors, an interior design studio centred on previously loved items and creative reuse.
Peter Mihaichuk
Peter Mihaichuk is a production designer and art director whose credits include Thanksgiving, Star Trek: Discovery, and Letterkenny. He is eager to deepen sustainable approaches within his practice.
The mix of experience within the cohort is intentional. One of the goals of the workshop is to create an environment where knowledge can move in more than one direction, combining established industry practices with new ideas, perspectives, and approaches.
Learning Through Making
Over four consecutive weekends, participants will work together to design and build two modular standing sets while exploring how circular thinking can be incorporated throughout the design-build process.
Rather than treating sustainability as something considered only at strike, the workshop looks at decisions made much earlier: how a set is conceived, what materials are selected, where those materials come from, how components are assembled, and whether they can be dismantled and used again.
The sets will be built using reclaimed and reusable materials wherever possible and will remain available for future training, student use, and industry applications after the workshop concludes.
Led by Working Art Department Professionals
The workshop is being led by Production Designers Marian Wihak and Rose Lagacé, alongside Construction Coordinator Joe Madziak, Key Scenic Jacqui Hemingway, and Set Decorator Lily Sadri.
Together, the team will guide participants through the relationship between design, sourcing, construction, scenic work, set decoration, material selection, reuse, and end-of-life planning while keeping the realities of professional film and television production at the centre of the program.
Building Toward More Circular Production Design
This pilot is part of CPD’s broader work to support practical sustainability within production design and the art department.
We believe meaningful change has to include the people making design and material decisions every day. By creating opportunities to test ideas in a working environment, document what succeeds, identify where barriers remain, and share what we learn, we hope to help make circular production practices increasingly achievable across the industry.
We can’t wait to welcome this first cohort and see what they build together.
