Hoopla Education was established in 2014 in Singapore by Angelica Manca and Paul Wagner. Our husband and wife team centers around our passion for the wellbeing of our planet and our future, our children. We believe that nothing is more important than providing Sustainable Education and this needs to be introduced right at the beginning, in Early Childhood Education.
See how each one of our team members contributes to building who we are.
Angelica Manca, Co-Founder, BSc in Psychology
Angelica, an Italian and American citizen born in Paris, holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Kent (UK). Her work in the early years began in 2002, with the birth of her daughter, and further developed between 2006 and 2017 in her role as International Director for Kindermusik. During this time, she focused on combining music and language development and created ABC English & Me for children ages 2yrs+. She spoke at numerous conferences on The Role of Play, Music and Movement in English Language Learning for Young Learners (Children’s Museum Rome, 2009); The Impact of Play in Social-Emotional Development (Beijing International Early Childhood Conference, 2010); The Impact of Music on Foreign Language Acquisition (International Conference on Bilingualism, Hong Kong, 2012), to name a few. In 2014, she co-founded Hoopla Education in Singapore with Paul, her husband, wanting to expand the creative realms to encompass a more holistic learning platform and broach the importance of sustainability in the Early Years. In 2015, she authored The Garden Project, an PBL curriculum that uses nature in its instructional design to promote sustainability and healthy eating habits. The Garden Project has been implemented in 17 countries and licensed by Macmillan Iberia and Macmillan Brazil planting the seeds for a more sustainable future.
Ama Lia Wai-Ching Lee, Director
Ama Lia has over 20 years of experience as a leader in the fields of Health, Wellness, Movement and Transformational Work, and serves as a director and advisor to Hoopla programs and curricula. An intuitive healer, she descends from a lineage of natural healers on both the paternal and maternal sides. Her passion is in discovering synergies and correspondences in the human condition and psyche, metaphysics and science that converge to the understanding of universal intelligence and unification. She is also the founder of Infinity Quantum Qi Gong.
Paul Wagner, Co-Founder, Contemporary Artist
Paul is a French-born New York raised, world-renowned contemporary artist. His art is strongly influenced by the 1960’s Minimalism movement and the use of rope as his main material aims to promote a revolutionary art. Texture, recycling propensity, and the ability to both connect and free are the reasons Paul has been using rope in his artwork since 1991. In 2005, Paul was 1 of the 30 Artists featured in 30 Ways to make a Painting - together with high profile artists such as Christo, Keith Sonnier, Allan McCollum and Nam June Paik to name a few, at the Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, OH. USA. In 2009 his solo show was featured at Scope Miami for Grey Gallery/LHP Productions and in 2014 his Exhale Installation for the animals in the Forest won 1st prize on Artslant Magazine. In 2014, Paul joined Angelica in founding Hoopla Education, driven by the aspiration to develop children’s creativity with very simple materials: sticks, stones, mud, leaves, something that should be accessible to all. Today, in addition to his art practice, Paul has become a curriculum writer, having authored Sticks & Stones, the Contemporary Art curriculum inspired by the Land Art movement for ages 3yrs+. He also runs teacher workshops and teaches children and is a firm believer that all children are artists. “The problem is,” as Picasso said, “how to remain an artist once we grow up”.
Ignazio Fulghesu, Illustrator and Graphic Designer
Ignazio is a well-known children’s book illustrator and graphic designer based in Cagliari, Sardinia. He has enchanted the world with his unique style and is very much an influencer in children’s illustration scene. His artistic talent can be enjoyed in all our programs as well as marketing. When he's not working in his studio, he loves running along the Poetto, Cagliari’s city beach. At one time he was an avid soccer player but decided to stop when he realized that he was no match to Johan Cruyff! Get inspired by ignazio's work: http://www.ignaziofulghesu.it/