Our Team
Who We Are

Linda was fortunate to grow up studying violin, piano, music theory and drama, as well as ballet and other styles of dance. After high school, she became a skilled business administrator for the Vancouver School Board and then the Vancouver Principals’ Association. After marrying and starting to raise a young family, she returned to her artistic roots and built a home music studio in Steveston, out of which she taught music. Thirty-two years later, she has grown her business into a full-fledged performing arts school and developed Vancouver’s first fine arts preschool. Linda has been a board member of the Community Arts Council of Richmond for over 20 years and was chair of the City of Richmond’s Childcare Development Advisory Committee for 12 years. Today, she publishes and distributes the Kelly Kirby music program throughout Canada and the US and has worked to develop additional materials to further enhance the program.

AWARDS

• Three-time recipient of the Ethel Tibbits Woman of the Year Award
• Richmond Chamber of Commerce Business Entrepreneur Award (2003)
• City of Richmond’s Arts Education Award (2014)
• Richmond Chamber of Commerce Business Leadership Award (2019)

Lily oversees and ensures that our business exemplifies our core values through personal interactions, dedication and commitment to every individual who walks through our school’s doors. Lily’s love of music and arts started at a very young age. At the age of five, she began piano lessons and later on explored many different avenues of art: painting, sculpture and architectural design.

Lily graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in economics. After graduation, she moved to the world’s financial hub, Hong Kong, but quickly found that life in finance was not giving her sentimental fulfillment in her career. In her five years abroad, she started tutoring local students in private and public schools from nursery level to Grade 12, and found she needed to move on with a career that blended her desire for teaching young children and her love for music and art. In 2009, she moved back to Vancouver and started her life-long career at The Arts Connection. This role has provided her with a career that matches her background studies in economics and passion for the arts for young children and youth.

As a devoted mother of two boys who have gone through basically every single program here, she has seen first-hand the true benefits of creating resilient and determined individuals through a well-rounded fine arts academic program. Lily is honoured to work with a wonderful team of creative thinkers who consistently show the same perseverance and never-ending passion for what they do: to nurture, foster and develop young minds.

Adena’s love for the arts is evident in her piano compositions, her drawings and her paintings. Yes, she is Linda’s daughter, and yes, she began working in the family business when she was 16 years old. There she gained hands-on experience at our Paddington Station Fine Arts Preschool, taught the Kelly Kirby Piano Method and worked part-time in the accounts department. Her passion for early learning led her to a career in Early Childhood Education where she graduated at the top of her class.

After taking over management of our daycare location on No. 2 Road, Adena and her family moved to the beautiful town of Vernon where she now works remotely as our accounting director, since her second passion is a love of numbers. She enjoys singing for and with her four-year-old daughter while opening up the world of early learning and the arts to the next generation of our family.

Mehernaz has been with us for over six years now and she enjoys working with an awesome group of strong, empowering women. She leads the administrative team and helps with human resources since the school has grown so much compared to when she first started working here. She and the administrative team are the glue that binds the different programs together, and they bring structure and organization so that registration and program implementation run seamlessly.

Mehernaz is happiest outdoors and you can often find her hiking our beautiful rainforest or Coast Mountain trails on any given weekend. Her travels have taken her to some fun places including three active volcanoes (Costa Rica and Hawaii), hiking upstream in a colourful canyon (Utah) and the Land of Fire and Ice (magical Iceland). 

Peace is one of the Renaissance Academy of Learning Before and After School Program coordinators. Before she joined Renaissance Academy at The Arts Connection, she worked as an academic counsellor and client support officer at Distance Learning Centre, University of Ibadan. She was also a Freelance Proofreader of edited course materials at Distance Learning Centre, University of Ibadan. Peace has also worked as an administrative/support officer with the Association of West African Book Editors. During her time with the Nigerian Youth Service Corp, she served at Irewole Local Government Ikire, Osun State, Nigeria as Social Development officer.

Peace thrives on building relationships with the students and families in the SPARK program. She has not only served as a role model but has also mentored students to become more helpful, responsible, creative and resourceful.

Peace completed her training in Nigeria at the University of Ibadan where she got her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in psychology and counselling respectively. In Canada, she also completed the Early Childhood Education Assistant program at Douglas College in 2012, and she completed her Early Childhood Basic Certificate at Burnaby Community & Continuing Education.

Coming soon.

Coming soon.

Coming soon.