With a background in Craft & Design from Sheridan and Niagara College, the Banff Centre for the Arts and Harbourfront Centre Craft Studios, Bear Epp has worked in the creative industry for over three decades as an artist, arts programmer, teacher and creative director. She has exhibited both in Canada and internationally and has commissioned work held in the permanent collection of the Royal Ontario Museum. Bear is dedicated to connecting the rug hooking community through creative exchange and actively facilitates workshops and retreats as well as co-curates Handhooked Current, a popular social media page promoting rug hooking, tufting, and punch hooking artists and makers. While she is relatively new to the craft of rug hooking, she has always felt a close connection to the tradition and often draws on her Mennonite heritage when creating her own contemporary folk designs.