Emebet Belete
Painter
Emebet Belete is a studio artist who works in a variety of media.
Emebet Belete grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 1985 she was accepted into the Addis Ababa School of Fine Arts – she was one of only 4 female artists to enter the school that year, and one of a handful of students selected from over 500 applicants.
After graduating, she worked as a studio artist. She was written up in Revue Noire (Paris) as an up and coming Ethiopian artist. Among her other achievements was editing and publishing the first catalogue of women artists’ work in Ethiopia (FOWA: the Friendship of Woman Artists), an organization that she lead in its first few years. (It still works to promote art education in Addis Ababa schools, and to support new artists entering the profession.)
In 1997 she emigrated to Canada, where she completed both fine arts and education degrees at Queen’s University, and continued to work as a studio artist.
Travel has always been part of her life. In 2008, she moved to TEDA, Tianjin, China with her family, where she taught art to an enthusiastic group of elementary students at Teda International School, as well as continued creating her own artwork, often inspired by the images around her.
She returned to Canada in 2013, where she can now be found in Belleville,On, creating art in her studio, and running educational workshops. (Emebet was an Ontario Arts Council Artists in Education Grant winner for the 2015 – 2016 year.)
