EAC Shop & Services: Giving Local Feels Good

Looking for a thoughtfully curated selection of gifts made by Edmonton artists? This holiday season, make the Edmonton Arts Council Shop & Services in the heart of downtown your destination for unique gifts made with care by local creatives.

With new artists joining the Shop’s roster of over 200 vendors all the time, there are always new treasures to discover! Whether you’re looking for holiday cards, Christmas ornaments, or a special one-of-a-kind gift for that special someone, you can check off your list at the Shop while feeling good about it. Every gift purchased from the EAC Shop supports Edmonton-based artists, makers, and the creative community.

Meet six new artists to the Shop

Byori Seo (craft artist): @ggulbyul | byoriseo​.for​mat​.com

Byori Seo, born in Seoul, South Korea, is an emerging craft artist from Edmonton. Her practice integrates ceramics and jewellery/​metalsmithing in mixed-media sculpture. Byori’s work prioritizes autoethnography, the inherent language of materials, and craft processes as forms of sacred meditation and communication. 

Byori’s current interests centre on a great spiritual winter — the fears, joys, and reconciliations of leaving and returning home — fluctuating between states of being and non-being. Craftmaking is a labour of deep love and care for Byori. Through this indulgent practice, Byori seeks to reconcile the severance of the body from the spirit, the individual from the collective, and intuition from logic.

Feathered Away (Indigenous art): @featheredaway

Marisa McKinney is an Indigenous artist and owner of Feathered Away. Based in Treaty Six, Marisa was adopted and raised in a small town outside of Edmonton. Marisa was fortunate to have access to cultural resources that helped shape who she is today. She learned to bead, sing, and dance from many Elders and Knowledge Keepers. Up until a teenager, Marisa had the privilege of being a professional Powwow dancer.

Following marriage to her long-time partner (also Indigenous and adopted) and welcoming their first child, a fire was sparked in Marissa to pursue beading and fashion design. Every day, they work hard to break generational cycles and reconnect with their culture. Marisa’s art allows her to connect with people who resonate with her healing journey.

Lavinia Leon (Author): @laviniawrites | lavinia​le​on​.com

In the post-totalitarian whirlwind of 1990s Romania, her first home country, Lavinia Leon was a promising poet with regional recognition. Then she became several other things: immigrant, medic-doctor, wife, alto in a SSAATTBB choir, academic researcher, divorcée, survivor, technical editor, corporate scientist, Canadian, first reader for a literary magazine, and open-mic host — but never stopped seeing the world in words. Her writing orbits around the in-betweens — the eternally hybrid spaces that carry liminal and luminous qualities alike — experimenting with blends of words and colours, melancholy and joy, impermanence and memory; ceaselessly searching for the many forms and times of Home. Since her rediscovery of the joy of writing, Lavinia’s short creative non-fiction story ​“Lullaby for Seventeen of Green” was awarded an Honourable Mention in the Off Topic Contest — December 2023, and she was longlisted for the 2024 Magpie Award for Poetry. 

Olivia Elel Enanga (Singer/​Composer and Arranger): @_olivianin

Olivia Elel Enanga is a singer, composer and self-taught arranger based in Edmonton. She was born and raised in Cameroon, where she drew her passion for choral music. Her artistic practice is directed by the vital need to connect with others and nature through the powerful medium of music. Human voice is her main tool, and she likes to play with different vocal textures, from classical to popular and often blends them to achieve creative waves that touch the bottom of her heart. Her work is characterized by a choir arrangement of rooted songs and is informed by her personal experience as a first-generation immigrant of African origin, evolving in a francophone minority community. Her practice is the result of family inspiration, cultural exchanges, years of self-directed and formal training, constructive collaborations and acceptance of her unique artistic approach. 

Shirley Randall (Ceramic artist): @shirls.ceramics

A member of the St Albert Potter’s Guild since 1979, Shirley Randall works out of a St Albert Place community studio. Shirley enjoys making tableware and other functional items that can be used every day. She enjoys exploring different firing techniques from electric kilns, gas reduction kilns, primitive pit firings, to Raku and Obvara. 

Shirley shares her love for pottery with students at the Art Gallery of St Albert and the Summer Series continuing education programs at Red Deer Polytechnic. 

Strawflower Farm (Dried florals): @strawflowerfarm_ab

Josephine Junas-Grant (She/​They) of Strawflower Farm is a flower farmer and artist specializing in dried florals. They create long-lasting pieces that reflect the vibrant seasonal nature of living in a northern climate. Each stem is started from seed, grown using thoughtful and sustainable farming practices, harvested, and hung to dry on their farm, an hour east of Edmonton, AB. The blooms are celebrated in their natural state without dyes or bleach altering their colours. 

Josephine’s work has strong roots in folk art traditions, reflecting a deep appreciation for natural beauty, community, and sustainability. Dried flowers also complement her multidisciplinary practice, which includes fibre arts, pysanky writing, ceramics, and music, through which she explores the interconnectedness of nature and creativity.

EAC Shop & Services: Your ticket to local arts and entertainment

Have someone on your list who would prefer a unique experience? Browse our selection of tickets to local and community events.

Giving Local Feels Good

Illustration by Natasha Gonzales: @zzzzzzsha

This year, EAC Shop & Services partnered with the University of Alberta Student Design Association to commission an emerging designer for our 2025 ​“Giving Local Feels Good” campaign. Fourth-year Industrial and Visual Communication Design student Natasha Gonzales’ illustration of an enchanting winter woodland adds a sweet and nostalgic note to this year’s campaign.

Want more local gifting ideas? In December, EAC Shop & Services (@shopyegarts) is highlighting Edmonton artists, as well as retailers and art markets specializing in artisan and handmade gifts.