Sanook Canuck
Back in Chiang Mai. Putting up posters, chasing venues, working on paperwork, and starting to reach out to people.
Chiang Mai 2026, what we are making
You know Chiang Mai better than we do. We are here for its universities, its clay and its artists, and because things get made here the way we like to make them. Two of those things are happening this season, and we are gathering the people who want to help build them. You can work on one or both.
A communal sculpture
Prototype idea, still brainstorming. This will probably change.
Part ceramic, part metal, built from pot blanks made in the villages and assembled by whoever turns up to work on it. One gets built here, one gets built in Canada, and both are gifted to the community they stand in.
The drawing above is the Canadian one. The Chiang Mai piece draws on the Lanna dancing hand, and it is still being sketched.
ประติมากรรมชุมชน ส่วนหนึ่งเป็นเซรามิก อีกส่วนเป็นโลหะ สร้างร่วมกันโดยทุกคนที่มาช่วย ตอนนี้ยังเป็นแบบร่าง อาจเปลี่ยนแปลงได้
A performance
Shown publicly when it is ready, during festival season or just after.
Built around a story we have been writing for years: a legend of twelve human experiences, told through song, movement, light and sound. It is not improvised. There is a shape to it, and students help build every part of it.
When it is ready we show it free and outdoors, for anyone who wants to come, and we would like it to happen every year.
การแสดงที่สร้างจากเรื่องเล่าของเรา ว่าด้วยสิบสองประสบการณ์ของมนุษย์ ผ่านดนตรี การเคลื่อนไหว แสง และเสียง เมื่อพร้อมแล้วจะจัดแสดงกลางแจ้งให้ชมฟรี
A way to go, not just a class
Most people cannot simply buy a ticket to Canada and start teaching. It takes a program, an invitation, and a work visa. That is the part we are trying to build.
There is real need where we live. Schools looking for people, and a lot of interest in Thai language, cooking and culture. A young teacher or artist who goes over gains experience that is hard to get any other way.
We cannot promise anyone a placement, and the permissions are not in place yet. What we can do is show you exactly how the route works and help you walk it, whether or not you end up going with us.
เราไม่สามารถรับประกันตำแหน่งงานให้ใครได้ และยังอยู่ระหว่างการขออนุญาต แต่สิ่งที่เราทำได้คือ อธิบายให้ชัดเจนว่าเส้นทางไปทำงานที่แคนาดาเป็นอย่างไร และช่วยเหลือคุณตามกำลัง ไม่ว่าสุดท้ายคุณจะไปกับเราหรือไม่ก็ตาม
For the sculpture we need
- Ceramics, throwing and hand building
- Metal work and welding
- Assembly and structure
- Transport and installation
- Finding somewhere to show it
For the performance we need
- Music and singing
- Movement and dance
- Props and set building
- Lighting and sound
- Front of house, and getting the word out
Open to current students and recent graduates in ceramics, sculpture, music and performance, and to anyone else living here who wants to help make it. Message us on Line and tell us what you make.
Powell River, on the qathet coast
A small coastal town between the mountains and the ocean, four hours and two ferries north of Vancouver. Everything happens in summer, which is exactly when you would be here.
The school you would be teaching in
École Côte-du-Soleil, SD93
A small French language school in Powell River, part of the francophone school district. The principal and the teaching staff want this, and the parents have been keen since they first heard about it. This is where the teaching practicum would happen.
It is a good place to land. The school is already a bubble of different languages, so a new one is normal there. Many of the kids speak English at home and are learning French themselves, at roughly the pace you would be. You would be learning two languages at once, alongside children doing the same thing.
The children will be fascinated by you. Part of what the school wants is exactly this: Thai culture, Thai skills, and a Thai adult in the building who can teach them something Canada cannot.
British Columbia has a French speaking population and its own francophone school district, so you would pick up French and English at the same time, in a place where both are genuinely used.
Échange culturel et éducatif entre le Canada et la Thaïlande
What the exchange is made of
Language runs through all of it. French and English are taught through making and performing, with vocabulary built around what you actually care about rather than a textbook list.
Who this is for
Thai students and graduates
Free French and English taught through sculpture and performance. Overseas teaching experience, environmental skills that almost nobody at home has yet, and a reference that means something.
qathet students
Thai language and cooking, entrepreneurship, fundraising, charity work and cultural adventures, delivered as extracurricular programming by visiting Thai educators.
Local teachers
Chances to travel to Thailand, teach French, and share Canadian programs with Thai student teachers.
A fair exchange, both directions. Thai educators come to Canada, Canadian teachers go to Thailand, and skills and ideas travel both ways. Plenty of programs promise one country the world and quietly make their money off the other. We are trying to build the opposite of that.
Who we are, and why
A husband and wife team based in Powell River. She is a BC certified teacher with more than 18 years in French immersion education, arts programming and international partnership work, and she heads up the design of the sculptures. He runs a community arts workshop in Powell River and teaches ceramics, music and performance, and wrote the music for the show.
We came to Chiang Mai in 2025 to start this. We are coming back to make it real. If you want to meet us, we would rather talk in person than by email.
Canada and Thailand have been signing broader agreements on culture and tourism lately, and that is a happy coincidence. It is not the reason for any of this. We started before it.
The real reason is personal. The two of us want to live half the year in Thailand and half the year in Canada, and keep teaching and making work in both places. Everything here grew out of that: the studio, the clay, the performances, the school.
We think that is worth saying out loud, because it tells you what to expect from us. We are not a company flying in to sell a package and leave. We will be in both countries either way. The only question is how many people get to come along.
And the point of the work itself? Things that only happen between people, and only in person. A sculpture that takes twenty pairs of hands to lift. A performance that does not exist until a room full of people make it exist. A language you keep because you needed the word right then, with a tool in your hand. Those are not skills that go out of date, and they do not transfer through a screen.
What we have actually been doing
Newest first.
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Through Bangkok. The flooding is hard to see, especially for the small businesses caught in it. Wishing everyone the best getting back on their feet.
Camps sold out all summer. Nice to get out between them, and good to finally have a sailboat to take people on instead of a dinghy. Thinking about running a winter session for the people who are too busy in July.
Busy season in the studio. Full rooms, breakfasts, and a lot of clay.
People keep asking what the rooms are like. Here is one of them. There are a few to choose from and we try to keep them affordable.
Glaze Lab, the shorter evening sessions for locals who do not want to stay over. A lot of fun, and good for the slow winter months.
We keep a hub online for everyone who has come through the workshops. People post what they are making long after they go home.
The end of year play wrapped up the school year. Watching it, we knew this is the direction to take the performance work next year, and that we should go bigger with it.
Back with the French school in Powell River. Staff signed on, and we talked with a lot of parents and homeschooling families about what would actually work for them. The surprise was how much interest there is in Thailand itself: Thai language, cooking, the culture. One family asked about going over for a year with their kid. Not what we expected, and it changed what we are planning to bring.
Setting up her show at the public gallery in Gibsons. Unpacking, plinths, lighting, the whole day. Next year we would like students helping with this part.
Gallery nights in Chiang Mai. Met some of the people running it and talked about how our program might sit alongside what they do. They have the French embassy side, we have the French Canadian school side. Feels like there is something there.
Long day at Chiang Mai University. Toured the art facilities and came away with a signed letter saying we will try to work together. It is not binding, but it is something, and the interest felt real on both sides. We left pretty stoked.
At the education fair in Chiang Mai, talking to private schools and a few public ones. Made some good connections.
Second year of the ceramic camps finished, sold out. Thank you to everyone who came. Hosting people, cooking breakfast and teaching sculpture all summer is a good way to spend a year.
Connections
Being straight about where each of these stands.
Chiang Mai University
In conversation since 2025
We visited the university last year, met with faculty, and signed a memorandum of collaboration, a statement of intent to work together. We were made very welcome and we are grateful for it. We are back in Chiang Mai now and still talking about what a partnership could look like, and we hope that in time part of this runs with the university.
Nothing is being done in the university's name, and nothing has been scheduled with them. The sculpture and the language sessions run on their own.
เราได้ไปเยี่ยมมหาวิทยาลัยเมื่อปีที่แล้วและลงนามบันทึกความร่วมมือ ขณะนี้ยังอยู่ระหว่างการพูดคุยกัน เรายังไม่ได้ดำเนินการใด ๆ ในนามของมหาวิทยาลัย
École Côte-du-Soleil, SD93
Principal and staff supportive
The francophone school in Powell River where the teaching practicum would happen.
Shophouse
Our own workshop
The ceramics and arts workshop in Powell River where much of the Canadian side happens, and where the residencies run.
Francophone cultural events in Chiang Mai
Attending, not affiliated
We take part in French language cultural programming in Chiang Mai. A connection, not a partnership.
Talk to us
If you are a student, a graduate, a teacher, a school, a temple or a university, write to us. If you can help with the Thai side of the paperwork, write to us first.
Email
theoffice@sanookcanuck.com
เขียนหาเราได้ทั้งภาษาไทย อังกฤษ และฝรั่งเศส