## Breadcrumb 1. [Home](/index%2Ephp/) 2. [News and Stories](/index%2Ephp/news) 3. [Announcing the recipients of the 2026 401 Richmond Illustration Studio Career Launchers!](/index%2Ephp/markdownify/node/4454) May 19, 2026 # Announcing the recipients of the 2026 401 Richmond Illustration Studio Career Launchers! ![401 Richmond studio space](/sites/default/files/styles/1_5_1_large/public/2025-05/401%20Richmond-CL%20Banner.png.webp?itok=-sRHMz3F) rgb(255,255,255) OCAD University’s RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers is excited to announce **Chenwei"Claire" Sun, Donia Shami, Ito Palaganas and Meelana Kravchenko** as the recipients of the [**2026 401 Richmond Illustration Studio Career Launchers!**](https://careerlaunchers.format.com/2026-401-illu) The recipients will be awarded one year of free studio space in 401 Richmond from June 2026 to May 2027. This award is generously supported by the **Dalglish Family Foundation**, whose commitment to emerging artists and designers makes this opportunity possible. ![Recipients of the 2026 401 Richmond Career Launchers](/sites/default/files/2026-05/CL%20Recipients_401Richmond%282026%29.png) **Chenwei"Claire" Sun bio:** Chenwei "Claire" Sun is an illustrator and intaglio printmaker who grew up in a small city in China and now lives in downtown Toronto. Claire graduated from OCAD with a bachelor's degree of illustration, though she spent a few years studying architecture at UofT first. Her art practice is spontaneous and iterative, letting playful characters flow across the page in organic streams of consciousness. Claire's art varies in material and subject but is always expressive, full of motion, emotion, and humour. She's inspired by city life, crowds, and the sparks of connection between people. She hopes her art can express the joyful chaos of her ESL, ADHD brain. [Website](https://sunchenwei.cargo.site/) [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/apple_sun_art) **Donia Shami bio:** Donia Shami is an Arab-Canadian, mixed media artist and illustrator, who uses colour and shape to explore the surrealities of existence. She is extremely passionate about mixed media and the dynamics of layering opacities and textures, but is also normally obsessed with acrylic based mediums, iced coffee, and her rat-like cat. [Website](https://doniashami.format.com/illustration) [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/kadzqew/) **Ito Palaganas bio:** **Ito Palaganas** is an illustrator working in the visual arts and music scene in Toronto, Canada. Born in Manila and growing up in Toronto, I've been focused on exploring and training within the arts for my entire life. After briefly studying Jazz at York University, then transitioning to graduate from Sheridan College for Art Fundamentals and continuing my studies at OCADu for Illustration, my practice is constantly evolving. Working on projects for; music, public art, children's illustration and even visual assets for corporate companies, I continually seek growth and aim to find the best ways to communicate our messages through design and illustration. Based in Toronto, this city has given me so much to offer towards my perspective on the arts, music and the cultures around us. My work focuses on blending those influences through my own lens. As a part of the Filipino diaspora, one of my primary objectives is to bring representation and empowerment to marginalized voices and explore the often forgotten and tucked away niches just outside of the mainstream, discovering more ways to connect, and express the humanity within all of us. [Website](https://itopal.format.com/) [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/ito_illu/) **Meelana Kravchenko bio:** I am a painter and illustrator. For my display at TOAF, I have created a series of oil paintings to explore feelings of the inhabited space, especially ones that arise with familiarity. In my general practice, I use repetitive imagery and simplistic composition to create insulated environments with distinct moods. Some recurring themes in my painting and illustration work are solitude, mystery, and human-animal relation. [Website](https://meelanak.format.com/) [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/meelana.k/) --- [**Learn more about our Career Launcher opportunities.**](https://careerlaunchers.format.com/) ## Other Recent News [### 2027 Critical Distance Centre for Curators Projections Program Call for Artists OCAD University’s RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers (CEAD) and Critical Distance Centre for Curators (CDCC) have partnered to co-create CDCC Projections Program Career Launcher. Four (4) to five (5) selected emerging artists will receive $690 to exhibit work in a single channel, projection-based screening program that will be displayed at the CDCC in March 2027. October 30, 2026 ](/news/2027-critical-distance-centre-curators-projections-program-call-artists) [### OCAD U’s Global Centre for Climate Action and EU bring large-scale art to Toronto’s Canada Malting Silos The Light and Melting Temporalities transformed the waterfront into a canvas for climate reflection. 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October 30, 2026 ](/news/2027-critical-distance-centre-curators-projections-program-call-artists) [### 2027 Critical Distance Centre for Curators Projections Program Call for Curators OCAD University’s RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers (CEAD) and Critical Distance Centre for Curators (CDCC) have partnered to co-create the CDCC Projections Program Career Launcher. One (1) emerging Curator will receive $1,700 to curate a single channel, projection-based screening program of work from the OCAD U community. The Projections Program will be displayed at the CDCC for six-weeks in March 2027. September 27, 2026 ](/news/2027-critical-distance-centre-curators-projections-program-call-curators) [### 2027 DesignTO Exhibition Stantec Window Gallery Call for Artists DesignTO, Stantec Window Gallery and the RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers are excited to announce a public window gallery exhibition Career Launcher. One (1) exhibition proposal will receive a total of $1,230 to show their work as part of the 2027 DesignTO Festival. September 20, 2026 ](/news/2027-designto-exhibition-stantec-window-gallery-call-artists)