Art of Awakening

Irene Sunshine Hamons is a committed and encouraging leader, a transformational speaker and a visual facilitator at Art of Awakening. She is passionate about supporting learners to apply new skills in work and life. 

After a 13 year career in the hospitality and tourism industry, cumulating in her last held position as the Head of Admissions, Youth Leaders Mentor and Chairman of School Events Committee for SHATEC (Singapore Hotel and Tourism Education Centre), Irene decided to bring her experience in training and project management, together with her lifelong passion for art and creativity, and merge with a creative thinking consultancy.

In 2011, she co-founded Art of Awakening, a visual communication solutions consultancy employing creativity, visual thinking processes and agile strategic tools to support businesses and educational environments to boost learning and clarify communications. With her partner, Irene successfully developed and launched their proprietary programme “Visual Facilitation LabTM” in 5 different countries, and coached more than 250 visual practitioners in the visual field, personal visual growth & community development.

Irene is a strong believer in the impact of visuals on the learning process and would include visual learning tools as part of the learning design, using tools such as mind mapping, visual brainstorming, agenda design, metaphor and stories telling. During the pandemic, Irene lead her new team into the digital and virtual terrain. Together, they have built new pathways, contributing to their vision to "Re-ignite Creative Solution Visually". One of her biggest achievements during COVID-19 period was co-creating a new series of visual facilitation tools and strategies to mentor Individuals in goal settings and leaders in corporate planning and visioning on digital platforms. This achievement was well appreciated by many and attracted new collaboration with APPLE. Irene is now an Apple Teacher and working towards bringing visuals to all ages. 

Irene is also a Professional member of Asia Professional Speaker Singapore and the Past President of MotherEarth Toastmaster Club. She holds a BA in (Communication and Media Management) from the University of South Australia. Amidst the Pandemic, Irene continued her education and became a certified IAL facilitator with WSQ Advanced Certificate in Learning and Performance (ACLP). She is also a Work Skill Qualified Managerial Facilitator for Learning and Personal Development by WDA since April 2009, a Certified Trainer by ITE, Singapore since May 2000 and a Certified Instructor by ExecuTrain - South East Asia in September 1997. To sharpen her skills in visual thinking and visual recording, she attended the program Graphic Recording 101, as part of the annual professional development conference for visual practitioners, organized by the International Forum of Visual Practitioners (IFVP), held in 2014 in Berlin, Germany.

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Irene was invited by DUKE-NUS as a speaker for Visual Thinking. Her visual work was featured in CNA as well as International Facilitator Association (Japan). Some of her recent contributions include SHE BRILLIANCE Inaugural Event 2021, Impactful New You 2021, MotherEarth & U 2021, Speaker’s Conference 2020 (Australia, Goldcoast), !MPACT 2019 (South Korea), SG Care 2019, Speak for Change 2019, IAF Asia Conference 2014 - 2019 (Singapore, Taiwan, Seoul, Osaka,  Kuala Lumpur, Guangzhou), HR Summit 2014-2017, Tedx Women 2019, Tedx Changi Airport Group, Tedx Singapore, Tedx Pickering Street, M2020, IxDD Singapore 2018

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