About Kidist Paulos Asrat

Kidist Paulos Asrat has an extensive background in the arts. She has studied film and photography at Ryerson University (Toronto) under Bruce Elder, an experimental filmmaker, and Don Snyder, a photographer. She has presented her films, photographs and paintings in Canada, the United Sates, and Europe. Her contribution to the arts community includes as Board of Director for Trinity Square Video, a non-profit video art organization.

Her visual arts background also covers two years of drawing and painting classes under Toronto artist Michael Jenzen, and with botanical artist Leslie Staple. She has also spent two years studying textile design at the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Her other artistic achievements include ballet training as a young girl, winning a regional prize, and more recently, as a performing member in several dance groups, including a modern dance ensemble. She has studied the piano starting at the age of six, and has given many public performances.

Her professional activity combines the graphic and textile arts. Her textile designs incorporate many of her photographs, drawings and paintings.

She has a broad theoretical and historical knowledge of the arts. Her vision of trying to understand and build upon this art history and theory has enabled her to write many articles on art, society and culture.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Education

Primary Education: Ethiopia, France and England 

The English SchoolAddis Ababa, Ethiopia 
- Prizes Awarded: General Knowledge Prize - Awarded Laura Ingalls' Little House on the Prairie

Artistic Participation:
- Piano performances
- Theatrical performances
- "Visual" poem published in the annual English School yearbook: The Raggle Taggle Snake

Betteshanger School: Kent, England
- Head Girl 
- Prizes Awarded: 
--- French, Music, Divinity (Scripture), and Ballet (3rd place in regional competition)

Artistic Participation:
- Piano performances
- Theatrical performances (including Potiphar's wife in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and the Strawberry Seller in the musical Oliver)

Sports Participation
- Netball and Field Hockey teams
- Ballet group

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Secondary Education: England

Dover College, Dover, England -
- Astor Scholar
- Prizes Awarded: Music and Poetry Prizes 
Awarded: 
--- Mozart's  Complete Piano Sonatas Volumes 1 and 2
--- Book on the Impressionist Painters 

Artistic Participation:
- Editor for the Dover College Student Newsletter: with published poem
- Member of the Dover College Choir, with various solo performances, and as part of the choir's touring member to renowned cathedrals, including St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and in Wurzburg, Germany 
- Actress: as Mme Smith in La Cantatrice Chauve (The Bald Soprano) by Eugene Ionesco

Sports Participation
- Netball and Field Hockey teams

Social work;
- Weekly visits to an elderly lady, Mabel, with limited visual ability (later corrected through cataract surgery), who would prepare for me tea and biscuits. She gave me her ring, a gold ring, with her initial "M" as a gift, which I still have.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

University Education: United States and Canada

Lock Haven University, Lock Haven, PA, USA
B.A. Natural Sciences
- Four-year scholarship - Tuition Waiver
- Prize Awarded: International Students Club Appreciation Plaque

Artistic Participation:
- Performances: 
-- Solo piano performances of Grieg, Mozart, Handel and Debussy music at various venues and events
-- Soloist and member of Lock Haven University's Choir, of a variety of classical, modern, and contemporary music, including as a touring choir member
-- Organizer and member of the International Students' singing group, performing in local churches, especially during Christmas, where we sang carols in five to six languages, including Amharic
-- Participant in the Lock Haven Black Students' Gospel Choir
-- Lock Haven University's American Square Dance group
-- Founding member, and participant, in the Annual Lock Haven International Students' Festival, where we performed ethnic dances and theaters, and put together an International Dinner
-- Founding member, and participant, in the International Students' Festival Panel Discussion Group, where we tackled political and social issues, often with colorful, and controversial discussions


Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
M.S. Applied Nutrition/Nutrition Education

Artistic participation: 
- New Brunswick (NJ) community choir performances, of  Mozart's and Faure's Requiem
- Performer in a local New Brunswick African Dance group

Cultural enrichment:
- Regular audience member at the Rutgers Film Society
- Frequent travels to New York City (only an hour away), visiting museums, galleries, and especially free rehearsal concerts at Lincoln Center for their classical music, orchestral repertoire

University of Connecticut, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Storrs, CT, USA
PhD (ABD) Nutritional Sciences
- Teaching Assistantship - Full tuition waiver with salaried teaching post teaching fundamental nutrition courses to undergraduate students
In collaboration with: the Mexican National Institute of Health Sciences and Nutrition - Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, and the Research Center of the Solis Valley - Centro de Estudios Rurales del Valle de Solís, Mexico City and Solís, Mexico
- Research Assistantship - Field and Clinical Research - Salaried projects conducting field, clinical and laboratory work
- Blood plasma analyses for Vitamin B12 and related tests, short-term salaried position at the Glenn Tisman Hematology/Oncology Laboratory, Whittier, CA, USA

Artistic Participation:
University of Connecticut - Community Dance Program, Storrs, CT, USA
- Modern dance program, with dance instructor and performer Marcia Heath 
- Performed in various public events

Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Certificate in New Media - Film/Photography/Digital Arts 

Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Advanced Studies in New Media - Film/Photography/Digital Arts 
Yearly grants towards tuition and material costs

Artistic Participation:
- Film and video screenings in the Ryerson Gallery, Toronto, Trinity Square Video, Toronto 
and in various venues in Toronto, France and Europe
- Photography exhibitions in the Ryerson Gallery, and in various venues in Toronto

Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, Canada
- Textile Surface Design 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Training

Institut Catholique de Paris Institut de Langue et de Culture Française, Paris, France
- Certificat de Langue Française (French Language Certificate) 

Institut National de la Santé et de Recherche Médical (INSERM), Paris, France
- Interviews and discussions with INSERM nutritionists

Centro de Enseñanza para Extranjeros (CEPE): National Autonomous University, Mexico City, Mexico
- Advanced Diploma in Spanish Language
- Performed with CEPE's Mexican Folklore dance group

Mexico City, Mexico
- Film production workshop, with Mexican film director Sergio Arturo Garcia Michel

International Communicative Languages Service, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Work Experience

Present: Cultural Analyst - Study, describe and analyze contemporary art and culture in both written and image form

2013 
Cabbagetown Regent Park Community Museum, Toronto, ON
- Docent

2007 
Botanical Artists of Canada Newsletter, Toronto, ON
- Writer
Trinity Square Video Newsletter, Toronto, ON
- Writer 
Among other publications

2004-Present 
Well-Patterned, Toronto, ON/Mississauga, ON
- Textile and Decor Designer 
--- Hand craft and design textile prints for patterned fabrics 
--- Hand craft and design decorative objects for homes and offices

2004-Present 
Well-Patterned, Toronto, ON/Mississauga, ON
- Graphic Designer
--- Design promotional materials for cultural organizations

2004-Present 
Kidist Paulos Asrat Photographs, Toronto, ON/Mississauga, ON 
- Photograph and install images for websites 
- Photograph special events/conferences

2000-2001 
Ryerson University, Toronto, ON
- Film research assistant for filmmaker Bruce Elder 

1998-2004  
Toronto District School Board, Toronto, ON 
Catholic School Board, Toronto, ON 
Bleecker Street Co-op, Toronto, ON
- English Language Instructor and Computer Graphics Instructor

1998-2000 
Trinity Square Video, Toronto, ON
- Board of Director, Secretary 

1994-1998 
COSTI-Immigrant Services, Toronto, ON
- Counselor and Interpreter/Translator 

1993-1994
Field to Table, Toronto, ON 
- Assisted in developing and distributing a nutritious and 
inexpensive monthly grocery box, The Good Food Box,
for lower income multicultural Toronto residents 

1990-1992 
Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran
Mexico Mexico City, and the Solis Valley rural health station in the State of Mexico
- Field and clinical research on Vitamin B12 deficiency, with cultural components

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Solo and Group Exhibitions

2001: Film: Sketches 
Trinity Square Video, Toronto, ON

2001: Video installation: (Toronto) Lake Ontario Video Installation 
Ryerson School of Image Arts, Toronto, ON

2002: Experimental Film: Gathering the Ripples 
Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, Tourcoing, France

2002: Photographs: Neighborhood Trees 
Allan Gardens Conservatory, Toronto, ON

2014: Visual Presentation: Reclaiming Beauty 
The Power of Beauty Conference 
Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio
- Photographs and textile and graphic works part of the presentation

2016: Presentation: Strength in Beauty 
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals conference 
Commission on the Status of Women 
United Nations, New York

2017: Presentation: Urban Development through Small Businesses 
Kidist Foods Cookbook introduction                         
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals conferences 
Commission on the Status of Women 
United Nations, New York 

May 2019: Well-Patterned: Designs and Decor 
Mississauga Central Library, Mississauga, ON

July 2019: Ontario Views: Paintings 
Mississauga Central Library, Mississauga, ON

October 2019: The Mississauga Civic Centre: Photographs                                                             
Mississauga Central Library, Mississauga, ON

August 18 - September 6, 2021: Visual Arts Mississauga
Images of Sunflowers online group exhibit
Riverwood Conservancy, Mississauga, ON

August 23 - September 23, 2022: Visual Arts Mississauga
Wildlife Exhibition [from Southern Ontario] 
Riverwood Conservancy, Mississauga, ON

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Presentations and Conferences

March 2017: United Nations Committee on the Status of Women Conference 
New York, NY
Parallel Event Workshop 
- Paper Presented: “Cookbook project to economic sufficiency of young Ethiopian urban women.” 
Sponsor: Nation to Nation Networking Limited

March 2016: United Nations Committee on the Status of Women Conference 
New York, NY
Parallel Event Workshop 
- Paper Presented: "How do We Empower Young Women in the Third World? By teaching them to understand their own beauty, and the beauty around them."
Sponsor: Nation to Nation Networking Limited

October 25, 2014: Franciscan University Power of Beauty conference 
Steubenville, Ohio 
- Paper presented: “Reclaiming Beauty: Winning Back Our Western Civilization” 
Partial funding: Franciscan University

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Special Skills

- Research and research methods 
- Writing and Editing 
 - Digital photography and editing 
 - Digital video and editing 
 - Website Design 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Language Proficiency

- English: Excellent speaking, reading and writing 
- Amharic: Excellent speaking, Good reading and Good writing
- French: Good speaking, reading and writing 
- Spanish: Moderate speaking, reading and writing

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Travels

Ethiopia, France, England, Wales, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, 
Zimbabwe, India, South Korea, The United States (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Georgia, California), Canada (Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, New Brunswick)