Toronto Arts Council Committees
COMMUNITY ARTS | DANCE | LARGE INSTITUTIONS | LITERARY | MUSIC | THEATRE | VISUAL ARTS/MEDIA ARTS
Community Arts Committee
Ruth Howard, Chair Artist who creates large-scale arts and theatre projects with urban communities. She is the Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre, a company she founded in 2001. Her education includes the National Theatre School of Canada (Design), University of Toronto (BA Honours), Eastbourne College of Art & Design. Jumblies Theatre is a multi-disciplinary arts organization that has pioneered the use of art in community setting.
Mahlikah Awe:ri(pronounced mah-lie-kah ah-why-ree) Oralist and practicing cultural artist, of AfriCanadian/Mohawk/Mi’kmak heritage, from Toronto, Canada with Nova Scotian roots. In 1993, she became a youth theatre arts instructor with the Fresh Arts Summer Employment Program. From 1994-99 she traveled as a solo spoken-word artist at various performance venues, cultural events and community radio stations across Canada and the Caribbean. In 1997 she became the first oral artist to receive the Chawkers/Frontier Award for Excellence in Writing and Publishing. In 1998 Mahlikah Awe:ri and Ancestral Ties 2 De Drum began partnering with the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Learning through the Arts Program, and has become an integral part of MAP (Media Arts Project). She has extensive experience as a community-based artist working with children, teens, and adults.
Anna Camilleri Multidisciplinary artist. Founding Artistic Co-Director of Red Dress Productions, a company that creates and disseminates original multi-discipline performance/theatre works, and community-based/public artworks. As a community artist working in both literature/performance and visual arts (mosaic), Anna vests herself in multi-voice, process and anti-oppression rooted work that welcomes non-artists and also recognizes the vibrancy of collaborative/collective creation works. As a community artist working in large-scale mosaics, which are also public art works, Anna is particularly interested in the interaction between community narratives in urban public spaces, and how this disrupts privatization of public spaces.
Kim Crosby hails from Trinidad & Tobago, but is made of the fabric and texture of the many places she has worked. Kim is a published creative writer, and as a spoken word artist was invited to the stage as part of the acclaimed Les Blues Collective with the Black Theatre Company, and has performed solo at Toronto’s Rhubarb Festival. Over the last decade, Kim has built a proud reputation as a passionate youth leader and community organizer; fostering equity and anti-oppression into everything that she does. Kim is currently the co-director of The People Project, an organization producing innovative arts and leadership opportunities for queer and trans youth in Toronto as well as engaging in a partnership based approach to institutional change.
Rob Howarth For the past twenty years Rob has worked in and with and number of Toronto’s non-profit community organizations. He is currently the Executive Director of the Toronto Neighbourhood Centres, an association of thirty-two multi-service community agencies located across the city. Through this work and his varied community research, facilitation and mobilization activities Rob has helped to articulate the opportunities and challenges facing Toronto's non-profit community sector, and has advocated for related reforms. He is particularly interested in the various ways in which community members may be supported to play a central role in creating a more equitable and inclusive society.
Kevin Ormsby has been dancing in Jamaica, Canada, and the United States for over twenty years. He also holds a degree in Mass Communications and Political Science from York University. Kevin is a dancer with Ballet Creole, teaches in the Professional Training Program and is the company’s Marketing/Outreach Coordinator.
Alia Toor is an artist and media educator who completed her MA at Columbia University and holds a Graduate Diploma in Arts Education from Concordia University. Her art explores how text and images inform our understanding of beauty, language, spirituality, belonging and security. She presents a dialogue in which to examine, disseminate and transform understandings of Islam and culture through installation, photography and textiles. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Doris McCarthy Gallery in Toronto, the University of Sydney in Australia, the Artwallah Festival in Los Angeles, the Toronto Alternative Art Fair, Harbourfront Centre and the Regent Park Film Festival.
Dance Committee
Nova Bhattacharya, Chair, has trained with some of bharatanatyam’s most esteemed teachers, including Menaka Thakkar, Kalanidhi Narayan and Kitappa Pillai. For eleven years she toured with Menaka Thakkar & Company as a soloist and company member. Since embarking on an independent career she has appeared with a number of companies while building an extensive body of work including her own choreography and commissions from Peggy Baker, Dana Gingras, Mika Kurosawa, José Navas and Laurence Lemieux. Her choreography has been commissioned by the Canada Dance Festival, DanceWorks, Dusk Dances, Toronto Dance Theatre, Cahoots Theatre Projects, and Theatre Direct Canada. In 2008 she established Ipsita Nova Dance Projects; the company’s productions have been presented across Canada and in Germany and Japan. An impassioned advocate for dance, Bhattacharya is currently the Treasurer of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists (Ontario) and serves on the Advisory Committee of the South Asian Dance Alliance.
Jessa Agilo-Copeland is a dance and interdisciplinary arts consultant and producer. Trained in Music Composition & Electroacoustics (Queen’s & UBC), Fundraising Management and Arts & Culture Administration, her own creative compositions have been performed and broadcast across Canada and in Europe. Currently General Manager of Kaeja d’Dance and Dreamwalker Dance Company, Jessa is also the founder of agilo arts, providing strategic arts management services to a variety of organizations and independent artists from across Canada. Her past management commitments include the multi-faceted role of Arts Manager at the Dance Umbrella of Ontario.
Lionel Félix has studied flamenco for over seventeen years. In 1996 he established The Art of Expression, a Toronto-based company serving the North American and international Flamenco communities. In 2007 he established the Toronto International Flamenco Festival to advance the public's understanding and appreciation of the form and to educate artists and audience alike. As a dancer, Lionel has studied in Toronto and Montreal and with several teachers from Spain, including Manolete, Paco Romero, Maria Magdelena and Antonio Reyes. Through the festival, he has presented international flamenco artists such as Maribel Ramos, Rafael Campallo, Mercedes Ruiz and Alicia Marquez and their respective companies. He also presented Canadian artists such as Carmen Romero, Esmeralda Enrique, Hali Dale, and Lisa La Mantia.
Charmaine Headley is co-founding Artistic Director of COBA, Collective of Black Artists and a champion of Africanist dance. Through her work as an artist, choreographer, teacher and mentor, she advocates for the recognition and inclusion of the contributions of ethno-cultural dance practices in Canadian dance history and culture today and pushes for a broadened societal appreciation of these art forms. A graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and a strong believer in the healing power of dance, Headley holds an honours diploma in Gerontology/Activation Coordination and has created a movement-based program for seniors for her Masters thesis at York University.
Kate Holden Member of Dancemakers and Co-Artistic director of firstthingsfirst productions. Graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and Etobicoke School of the Arts. As an independent dance artist, Kate has interpreted the works of many esteemed Canadian choreographers including Peggy Baker, Robert Desrosiers, David Earle, James Kudelka, Andrea Nann and Yvonne Ng. She danced with the Danny Grossman Dance Company for two seasons. In 2005, she was the winner of Le Grand Prix de l’Excellence and Le Coup de Coeur at the Mondor Challenge in Trois-Rivières Quebec for her interpretation of Roberto Campanella’s Flotsam and Jetsam. Kate is a past member of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists board of directors.
Keiko Ninomiya grew up in Japan and studied in England at the London Studio Centre and the London Contemporary Dance School and in Toronto at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Since graduation, she has appeared in works by CORPUS, Hiroshi K. Miyamoto, Masumi Sato, William Yong, Matjash Mrozewski, Mari Osanai, Lincoln Shand and Denise Fujiwara. Keiko has showcased her own choreographic work at various venues including fFIDA and the CanAsian Dance Festival. She founded the Yuragi Dance Project and is the co-founder of AKA, ZUKE, and Green Tea, a collective of Japanese contemporary dancers in Toronto. In 2008 Keiko was invited to choreograph for Le Groupe Dance Lab in Ottawa and premiered her first solo piece Fly in Aomori, Japan. She has taught such diverse forms as creative movement, hip hop and modern dance in both Canada and Japan.
Jon Reid, also known as Drops in the bboy community, has spent the last decade nurturing bboy and hip hop culture in Toronto. As a dancer he frequently represents Canada on the world bboy competitive circuit, while at home he provides opportunities for a new generation of artists and entrepreneurs. Jon is the Artistic Director of Break It Down Dance Initiatives, Dance Director of Manifesto Festival of Community and Culture, and Youth Outreach Coordinator for Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA). He will be a featured Artist in Residence in 2011 in the York University Dance Department and he also continues to create education programs through Break It Down that directly impact students and youth across the GTA.
Large Institutions Committee
Jini Stolk, Chair Founding Executive Director of Creative Trust, Jini is an acknowledged leader in the arts and culture community with senior management experience in a range of producing and membership organizations. Previous positions include: Managing Director of Toronto Dance Theatre, Executive Director of Toronto Theatre Alliance, Associate Director of the Association of Canadian Publishers and General Manager of Open Studio. She continues her involvement in many community and cultural advocacy activities and is President of the Board of Hum dance theatre and a director of the 215 Centre for Social Innovation. She previously served as President of Toronto Artscape and Six Stages Theatre Festival.
Colleen Blake is the Executive Director of the Shaw Festival. Her extensive career in theatre includes an 18-year association with the Stratford Festival in positions ranging from Stage Manager through Production Manager and Director of Production to six years as Producer. She also worked as Production Manager of Young People’s Theatre and General Manager of the Bastion Theatre Company in Victoria, B.C. Ms Blake has served on numerous committees, including the Steering Committee of the Canadian Arts Summit, advisory and assessment committees for the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts, and the Arts in Transition Task Force for the Canadian Conference of the Arts. She is a past member of the Board of Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT) and she served as co-chair for the PACT Negotiating Committee for the Canadian Theatre Agreement.
Cathryn Gregor Chief Operating Officer of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. She was the Director of Transition Planning at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, responsible for the capital renovation completed in 2006. She spent ten years at the Canadian Opera Company, first as Director of Music Administration and then as Administrative Director for the entire company. She has also worked for Tapestry New Opera, Soundstreams Canada, Opera Atelier, 1989 International Choral Festival, Bach 300 Festival, and Music Toronto. She is chair of the board of directors for Queen of Puddings Music Theatre and a board member of the Regent Park School of Music Foundation.
Mervon Mehta is Executive Director, Performing Arts, The Royal Conservatory. Mehta began his career as an actor, appearing on stage in Toronto and Chicago as well as in film and television. In 1994 he accepted a programming position at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, one of America’s oldest and most musically diverse outdoor festivals, and by 2001 had served as both Director of Programming and Director of Production. In February 2002 he joined the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, where he has served as Vice President of Programming and Education. He returned to Toronto in 2009 to lead the opening of Koerner Hall for The Royal Conservatory.
back to top
Literary Committee
Andrew Pyper, Chair, Writer. Andrew received an MA in English literature from McGill University and a law degree from the University of Toronto. Although called to the bar in 1996, he has never practiced. Andrew Pyper’s work has been published internationally. Lost Girls (1999) won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was a national bestseller in Canada and a Notable Book selection in both the Globe and Mail and The New York Times Book Review. The Trade Mission (2002) was selected by the Toronto Star as one of the Ten Best Books of the Year. The Wildfire Season (2005) was a Best Books of the Year selection by the Globe and Mail. The Killing Circle (2008) was selected as one of the notable crime novels of 2008 by The New York Times. His most recent book, The Guardians, published by Doubleday earlier this month, is already in its second printing and is a national bestseller.
Farzana Doctor’s first novel, Stealing Nasreen, received critical acclaim and earned a devoted readership upon its release in 2007. Her second novel, Six Metres of Pavement (Dundurn, 2011), was praised by Publishers Weekly as “…a paean to second chances.” Besides novels, Doctor has written on social work and diversity-related topics, and provides private practice consulting and psychotherapy services. She is co-curator of the Brockton Writers Series. www.farzanadoctor.com
Maureen Hynes Poet and editor. Maureen Hynes has published two books of poetry, Rough Skin (Wolsak and Wynn 1996) and Harm’s Way (Brick Books 2001), and is working on a third. She has twice been selected for the Banff Writers’ Studio and a selection of her poems was shortlisted for the 2007 CBC Literary Award. Maureen has been Writer-in-Residence at the University of Prince Edward Island and a judge for several poetry contests and awards. She has given many poetry workshops and readings across Canada and abroad, and has published her poems in numerous journals. Maureen is Poetry Editor for Our Times, Canada’s national labour magazine.
Robert Hough Writer. Robert worked as a journalist, writing for such magazines as Toronto Life and Saturday Night, before turning to books. His first book was originally intended to be a biography of Mabel Stark, a promiscuous and ribald 1920s lion tamer for Ringling Brothers Circus. Due to a general lack of documentation on Stark, Hough decided to write a novel instead. Published by Random House to rave reviews in 2001, The Final Confession of Mabel Stark was shortlisted for both the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book and the Trillium Book Award. Next, The Stowaway (2004) was nominated for the IMPACT Dublin Literary Award. His third book, The Culprits (2007) was nominated for the Commonwealth Book Prize, the Rogers Writer’s Trust Award and the Trillium Book Award.
back to top
Music Committee
Gregory Oh, Co-Chair Pianist with graduate degrees from both University of Toronto and University of Michigan. He is Artistic Director of new music ensemble Toca Loca, plays with The Lollipop People, teaches at the University of Toronto and performs with a wide variety of ensembles across Canada.
Dallas Bergen, Co-Chair, Founding Artistic Director of Univox Choir Toronto, a community choir for young adults. Dallas is also a professional singer with the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, Canadian Chamber Choir and Director of Harbourfront Community Chorus.
Jane Hargraft General Manager of Opera Atelier, a baroque theatre company that produces opera, ballet and drama from the 17th and 18th centuries. Prior to Opera Atelier, Jane was Director of Development at the Canadian Opera Company.
Kathleen Kajioka Musician (viola/violin) with a reputation as a musical multilinguist, moving between genres. She appears as a baroque violist and violinist with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, as a modern violist with Via Salzburg Chamber Orchestra and as an Arabic violinist with Maryem Tollar, Maza Méze and the Arabesque Orchestra. Kathleen has also recorded with popular music artists Jesse Cook, Luke Doucet and K-os.
Joseph Macerollo opened the door to acceptance of the concert accordion in Canada. A renowned performer, teacher and arts administrator, he pioneered acceptance of the concert accordion at the University of Toronto and Queen’s University. His graduates are successful musicians nationally and internationally whether in education or performance. Joseph Macerollo has performed with a large cross-section of major ensembles and orchestras in Canada and throughout the United States. He has given workshops throughout the world and was recognized in Moscow in 2005 with a silver disc for his high standards in accordion performance and pedagogy. He performed with Quartetto Gelato (1998-2002), performed for the Three Tenors on 3 occasions, recorded for Henry Mancini and with Teresa Stratas, and has been showcased in countless commissions, commercials and television and film soundtracks. His long standing commitment to arts groups is evident in a multitude of positions he assumed working with Patria Music Theatre Projects, New Music Concerts, International Accordion Society, Toronto Musicians’ Association and Esprit Orchestra.
Caitlin Smith is a composer, producer, conductor and clarinetist. She is the leader of the twenty-piece Tiny Alligator Large Band, and co-founder and conductor of The Wireless Orchestra, a 50-piece jazz philharmonic orchestra in New York City, with the Wanton Fawns Composers’ Collective. Her compositions and arrangements have been played by the Viceroy Brass Ensemble, the Darren Sigesmund Big Band, and the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. Caitlin performs around Toronto as a clarinetist in jazz, folk-rock and classical music ensembles, and teaches woodwinds and jazz ensemble at Regent Park School of Music.
Richard Underhill Award-winning jazz composer, arranger and saxophonist. Richard is a founding member of Toronto’s acclaimed Shuffle Demons and has performed and recorded with The Neville Brothers, Taj Mahal, Molly Johnson, Blue Rodeo, Andy Stochansky and Tory Cassis. His most recent CD, Moment in Time, has received significant critical acclaim.
Vineet Vyas is Canada’s premiere exponent of the tabla drums. A disciple of the legendary late Pt. Kishan Maharaj of Benares, Vineet has spent his life travelling to learn and perform in India, while being equally committed to teaching and performing in Toronto. Vineet performs with eminent Indian classical music artists such as Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Ustad Shahid Parvez, and Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra. He has also been featured as a guest artist with the Niagara Symphony and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In 2009, Vineet founded the PKM Jayanti festival collective, an Indo-Canadian organization to commemorate his guru’s legacy in Canada.
Aisha Wickham Thomas is the Executive Director of the Canadian Independent Recording Artists' Association (CIRAA), a national not-for-profit association exclusively representing Canadian independent recording artists. Her career has been focused on developing and promoting Canada’s music industry. She is the former Canadian Talent Development Manager for FLOW 93.5 and was the Executive Director of the Urban Music Association of Canada (UMAC). Aisha currently runs her own communications consulting practice, ngoma productions, specializing in project management, marketing strategy, business plan development, and writing services.
back to top
Theatre Committee
Moynan King, Co-Chair, is a director, writer, dramatug, actor, curator and performance artist. Moynan’s solo and collaborative performance pieces have been presented across Canada and the US. As an actor, Moynan has over forty professional film, theatre and TV credits and is a member of CAEA and ACTRA. She was dramaturg for the Toronto Women’s Caucus of the Playwrights Guild of Canada from 2001 to 2006 and Associate Artist at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre from 2004 to 2009. Moynan was the co-founder and director of Hysteria: A Festival of Women, for five years and was curator of the Rhubarb! Festival of New Plays from 2003 to 2005. She has been a guest lecturer at Guelph University, York University, Glendon College and the University of Wisconsin and recently completed her MA in Drama at University of Toronto.
John Van Burek, Co-Chair Founder and Artistic Director of Pleiades Theatre, John Van Burek has been a professional theatre artist for thirty-five years. He has directed over 100 plays, workshops, operas and special events and translated over 40. He was the founding Artistic Director of Théâtre français de Toronto, which he ran for close to twenty years. Through his translations, often in partnership with the late Bill Glassco, he introduced the work of Michel Tremblay, one of Canada’s preeminent playwrights, to the English-speaking world. In addition, he has translated works by Gratien Gélinas, Goldoni, Suzanne Lebeau, Marivaux and Molière. He is currently working on a translation of Albert Camus’ Les Justes. He has received many awards and distinctions, including the Toronto Drama Bench Award for Distinguished Contribution to Canadian Theatre, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and most recently, he was given the prestigious Silver Ticket Award by the Toronto Association of Performing Arts.
Keith Barker is a Métis actor and writer who trained at George Brown Theatre School and the Confederation College Television and Radio training program. He was a former Artistic Associate and Playwright in Residence at Native Earth Performing Arts. He is currently the co-administrator for the Animikiig and Thundering Voices Program where he provides mentorship for young Aboriginal playwrights. As a performer he has worked for the National Arts Centre, Native Earth Performing Arts, Aluna Theatre, New Harlem Productions, and Convergence Theatre. His plays have been developed through Weesageechak Festival, Matariki Festival (New Zealand) and Stratford Arts Fair.
Marjorie Chan is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist. A graduate of George Brown Theatre School, she has received two Doras (Performance & Outstanding New Opera) as well as the K.M. Hunter Artists’ Award. As a writer, her pieces include a nanking winter, The Madness of the Square, China Doll (Governor General’s Award & Dora nominations), and the award-winning opera Sanctuary Song as well as many other shorter pieces. Her residencies include NYSU (New York), Theatre du Pif (Hong Kong), Theatre Direct Canada, Cahoots Theatre Company, and Tapestry New Opera. She was Associate Artistic Director of Cahoots from 2006 to 2009 and currently administers Crossing Gibraltar, a theatre-training program for newcomer youth.
Alex Fallis has been part of the Canadian professional theatre scene for close to thirty years. He is an actor, director, singer and teacher. He has experience in opera, musical theatre, new Canadian work, classical work and performance art. He is currently a theatre instructor at George Brown College and Humber College. In his professional career, he has performed on many Toronto stages including Dream in High Park, Young People’s Theatre, Canstage, Toronto Free, Skylight Theatre and Native Earth Performing Arts.
Shawn Kerwin is an award winning set and costume designer and teacher with credits in Canada, England and the United States. Recent design work in Toronto includes projects for Factory Theatre, Soulpepper, Obsidian Theatre, Canadian Stage, Tarragon Theatre, and out of town at the Blyth Festival, Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland, and Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre, York University, where she served as Chair from 2003-2009. Recently Shawn completed a five month residency at the CFC Media Lab at the MaRS Centre and premiered her CFC installation project Alone Together at the Bata Shoe Museum during 2011 Scotiabank Nuit Blanche.
Richard Lee is a co-founder and current General Manager of fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company. He sits on the Board and several committees for Toronto Alliance for Performing Arts (TAPA) and is member of the diversity committee of Professional Association of Canadian Theatre (PACT). As an actor, fight director and sound designer he has worked for many Toronto companies including: Obsidian Theatre, Cahoots, Nightwood Theatre, Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, Shakespeare in the Rough and fu-GEN Theatre.
Sara Meurling is a professional arts manager with more than 25 years of experience; she is currently the Managing Director at the Factory Theatre. After spending 9 years in the private sector, she returned to theatre in 2007 as the General Manager of the Young Centre of the Performing Arts. Sara began her career at the Theatre Centre where she was General Manager and Producer at various locations during the late 1980s and early 1990s. She has worked with small theatre companies and larger organizations from the Dance Umbrella of Ontario to the Ontario Puppetry Association. She is currently a member of the Board of Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) and also serves as President of Small Theatre Administrative Facility (STAF).
Donna-Michelle St. Bernard is a writer, performer and arts administrator. Her plays have been staged in Summerworks, Ignite Festival and Nightwood Theatre’s Write from the Hip Festival. She was playwright in residence at Obsidian Theatre. In 2009 she won the Enbridge Emerging PlayRite Award for her play Gas Girls. She is a hip hop artist with several recordings and a writer whose work has been published in Epoch Times and Afrotoronto.com. She is currently the General Manager of Native Earth Performing Arts.
Jordan Tannahill is a playwright, director, and Artistic Director of the multi-disciplinary performance company Suburban Beast. His productions explore non-fictive subject matter, often employing verbatim text derived from interviews, performances from non-actors, and complex video design. Recent work includes: Post Eden (SummerWorks 2010, winner of Best New Work), Insurgency (Rhubarb Festival 2010), Get Yourself Home Skyler James (Roseneath Theatre, Dora Award. He is currently in Factory Theatre’s playwright’s unit, and Suburban Beast is currently a company-in-residence at Theatre Passe Muraille..
Visual Arts/Media Arts Committee
Danis Goulet, Co-Chair Artistic Director for imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, she brings with her significant experience in film and media arts. Her short film spin has screened at several festivals, including the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and her latest short film Divided By Zero premiered in 2006 at the Message Sticks Film Festival at the Sydney Opera House. Prior to joining imagineNATIVE, she worked as a casting director on numerous film productions, as well as for the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. Danis is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the Images Film Festival, a programming committee member for the Worldwide Short Film Festival and an advisory committee member for the Planet IndigenUS Festival. She is Métis, originally from northern Saskatchewan, and now resides in Toronto.
Jessica Wyman, Co-Chair Writer, curator, and art historian. Jessica teaches in the Faculty of Liberal Studies, Ontario College of Art and Design. She has worked with artist-run organizations YYZ Artists’ Outlet and Fuse magazine, with Active 18 Association, and has curated numerous exhibitions for commercial and artist-run galleries. Her writing about contemporary art, and most recently about art history and performativity, has appeared in magazines and journals across North America and in Europe, and her three-volume edited book, Pro Forma: language/text/visual art was published in fall 2007. Wyman received the 2004 Untitled Art Awards Emerging Curator Award and was shortlisted that year in the category of Best Art Writing.
Deanna Bowen Media installation artist and Lecturer at UTSC. Deanna has a Masters Degree in Visual Art (2008) from the University of Toronto and a Diploma of Fine Arts (1992) from Emily Carr College of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in numerous film festivals, artist-run centres and commercial galleries. In addition to her artistic practice, Deanna has also worked in the cultural sector for over 13 years at organizations such as the Images Festival, InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, LIFT, Point of View Magazine, Women in Focus Arts & Media Centre, and the Inside Out Lesbian & Gay Film and Video Festival.
Heather Keung Artistic Director of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. Heather’s artistic practice examines issues of identity, intimacy and physical experience through the use of video, installation and performance art. Inspired by repetitive daily actions and physical labour, her current work looks at involuntary responses, habitual social behaviours and the training of the mind & body. Works from this series have recently been exhibited at Trinity Square Video's Artist Spotlight (Toronto), FIFA (Montreal), Transmedial (Berlin), MUU Gallery (Helsinki), Tranzit Ateliery (Slovakia), Casa Tranzit Haz, (Romania), Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art (Budapest). In addition to her artistic practice, Heather is an active contributor to local arts organizations such as Images Festival, Planet in Focus Festival, Trinity Square Video and Vtape.
Michael Klein has been exhibiting video and photo-based work for more than 25 years. His interests include personal history and identity, relationships and interaction, structure and presentation. Recent exhibitions include Citizen Dandy at the Art Gallery of Windsor and i and i at the Confederation Centre for the Arts Gallery in Charlottetown. Citizen Dandy was also included in the exhibition, Here Now or Nowhere in Grand Prairie, Alberta in 2009. Video Pool in Winnipeg will be exhibiting i and i in 2010. Michael Klein is also the director of the Toronto gallery MKG127.
Shauna McCabe was appointed the Executive Director of the Textile Museum of Canada in 2010. From 2007 to 2010 she held the position of Canada Research Chair in Critical Theory in the Interpretation of Culture at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, where she also founded CHARTS, the Centre for Humanities and Arts Research in Transdisciplinary Space. Previous positions include Director of The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador where she initiated a number of interdisciplinary projects connecting historical collections and contemporary practices and Senior Curator of the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island from 1998 to 2005. She has produced over 50 exhibitions by Canadian and international artists including recent projects Krimiseries: Raqs Collective, Deimantas Narkevicius, Stih & Schnock, Mac Adams, and Susan Schuppli (Museum London, 2010), Formerly Exit Five: Portable Monuments to Recent History (Kenderdine Art Gallery, 2010), and The Rural Readymade (Confederation Centre Art Gallery, 2011).