Speaker Series: Matt Smith

Matt Smith visited AISG recently as a part of our Speaker Series program. Matt is a Canadian/British cartoonist and comics educator. His comics have been published in anthologies and collections in the UK, Canada, and the US and he has taught at schools like the International School of Kuala Lumpur, the American School in Japan, the American International School Kuwait.

For the past seven years, Matt has run interactive comics-making workshops online and in-person at over 60 schools across four continents, working with thousands of students.

During his visit, Matt talked to and held sessions with students from Kindergarten all the way to Grade 12, as well as our caregivers.

With our students, Matt held sessions in the library as well as in the art classrooms. He taught our students all about the art of comics and how they are an important form of creative self-expression.

Students had the chance to get hands-on and draw their own comics after learning some of the basics and it was a lot of fun! It was incredible to see our students excitedly draw and express themselves creatively.

With our caregivers, Matt expressed how important comics are as a form of art and expression. There is the misconception that comic books are not as sophisticated or 'real' as reading other books and Matt dispelled that for our caregivers, providing examples of how comics convey deep stories and understanding and that comics can be a good genre to read for people who are neurodivergent.

A huge thank you to Matt Smith for visiting AISG as a part of our Speaker Series, our students and caregivers learned so much!

Our Speaker Series brings extraordinary speakers from all over the world to share their expertise with the AISG community. This is made possible by donations to our Annual Fund. Click here to learn more about our Speaker Series.