About
Clelia Scala is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and designer whose work includes mask, puppet, costume, and story design; sculpture; collage; illustration; and installation. Her explorations into the fantastic and uncanny stem from a lifelong interest in folktales and myths and the theme of human interaction with the natural world. Blending storytelling with a deep engagement in material exploration, her practice draws on memory, transformation, and the surreal.
Clelia’s installation work transforms space into environments where wonder and unease coexist. Working with natural and fabricated materials, she explores the tension between growth and decay, stillness and disturbance. Recent works include The Clearing (with Marney McDiarmid) and her solo installation, Forage. Her visual art has shown in galleries such as the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the Centre for Puppetry Arts, the Niagara Artists Centre, and the Woodstock Art Gallery.
As a designer and fabricator for theatre, Clelia has worked with theatre companies and art institutions in Canada and the United States, including Bad New Days, Carousel Players, Guilty by Association, Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Odyssey Theatre, Suitcase in Point, Theatre Kingston, University of Missouri–St. Louis Opera Theatre, and Yale University.
Clelia’s publications include a series of collages for Alice Through the Working Class (BlazeVox 2024) and Alice in Plunderland (BookThug 2015), both by Steve McCaffery, and collage illustrations for I Can Say Interpellation (BookThug 2011) by Stephen Cain.
In 2019, she received the City of St. Catharines Established Artist Award. In 2025, she received a Dora Mavor Moore Award as part of the design team for Bad New Days’ Last Landscape.
Scala teaches theatre design and production at Queen’s University’s DAN School of Drama & Music.
Articles, Interviews, & Videos
Interview: “A Window into the World of Clelia Scala” by Haley Sarfeld for Kingston Theatre Alliance.
Audio. All in a Day, with Alan Neal.
Video. Designer Memories. Strathcona Park Diaries Episode 9.
Article: Of Masks and Metamorphosis by Bart Gazzola.
Video. Maker in Residence Clelia Scala (Burlington Public Library).
“I have had the privilege of working with Clelia Scala on two projects that required mask and puppetry. She is a master of her craft, and I am constantly amazed by her talent. Clelia takes on all manner of challenging projects and creates beautiful fine work that is beyond most people’s expectations.”
“Clelia has incredible talent and is able to understand the shortest brief of what is required.... She develops creative solutions to problems as well as beautiful designs. ”
“This dark, discombobulated feeling is actually showcased beautifully in the story’s excellent collages by Clelia Scala that accompany the fractured tale. The images bring the story’s similes and broken-down cast of characters to life in a disjointed, haunting way. ”
“...the images were marvelous. The artist has used some of the classic Carrol drawings and done what I can only describe as collage-ing and scrap-booking with them. These were done incredibly successful, and I loved the style.”