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Speakers

Speakers

Cameron Bailey is the Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival® and the overall TIFF organization. He is responsible for the overall vision and execution of Festival programming, as well as maintaining relationships with the Canadian and international film industries. For five consecutive years, Toronto Life has named him one of Toronto’s 50 Most Influential People (2012, 2013, 2014,2015 and 2016). Born in London, Bailey grew up in England and Barbados before migrating to Canada. He began programming for the organization in 1990, headed the organization’s Perspective Canada programme and founded its Planet Africa section, and worked both as a film programmer and film critic for 20 years before taking on his current role. He reviewed for Toronto’s NOW Magazine, CBC Radio One and CTV’s Canada AM. He presented international cinema nightly on Showcase TV’s national program The Showcase Revue, and produced and hosted the interview program Filmmaker on Independent Film Channel Canada. He has been published in The Globe and Mail, The Village Voice, CineAction! and Screen, among others. Bailey currently sits on the Advisory Council for Western University’s School for Arts and Humanities and for Haiti’s Cine Institute film school. He is past co-chair of the Arts & Culture Working Group of Toronto’s CivicAction. In 2016, Bailey joined the board of CivicAction. He is also a former board member of Tourism Toronto, and previously taught a course in programming and curation at the University of Toronto.
Alexandra Baillie is Managing Director of Good & Well, a boutique impact investment firm supporting businesses with a social purpose. Prior to this, Alexandra spent several years in Liberia building a renewable resources company, as Deputy Country Director of Pamoja Capital’s Buchanan Renewables, drove policy negotiations for the United Nation’s Convention on Biodiversity and coordinated a large-scale partnership to green the 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, following which she authored a guidebook on greening large-scale events. Alexandra holds degrees from Queen’s, Yale and Harvard Business School. She is Co-Chair of the Canadian Stage Board, Treasurer of the Art Canada Institute and an advisor to the Queen’s Biological Field Station. While on an expedition in Mongolia, Alexandra captured the first known footage of a long-eared jerboa.
Simon Brault is the Director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts, coming into the position after having served as Vice-Chair of their Board of Directors from 2004 to 2014. Mr. Brault has been active in the cultural sector for over 30 years and has held key positions in many national organizations.
Mr. Brault has participated in many initiatives, such as the Forum d’action des milieux culturels de la Métropole, the steering committee of the Chantier de l’économie sociale, the Montréal Summit, the Rendez-vous novembre 2007 Montréal Métropole culturelle and Agenda 21C de la culture au Québec. He was also a founding member and Chair of Culture Montréal. He was appointed to the board of directors of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA). His first non-fiction book, Le facteur C : l’avenir passe par la culture, explained the dramatic rise of cultural concerns in the public agenda.
Mr. Brault is an Officer of the Order of Canada, Officier de l’Ordre national du Québec, a Fellow of the CGA Order and the CPA Order, and is a recipient of the 2009 Keith Kelly Award for Cultural Leadership. In 2015, he received the Quebec CPA Order’s prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award.
As the VP Corporate Citizenship for RBC and Executive Director of the RBC Foundation, Valerie is responsible for the development and execution of RBC’s global corporate citizenship strategy which includes strategic philanthropy; employee ‘citizenship’ engagement; citizenship impact measurement, evaluation and reporting; corporate environmental affairs; and social innovation and finance.
For over 23 years Valerie has helped national and international businesses, governments and non-government organizations create opportunity by proactively managing environmental and social risks, and implementing programs that deliver both shareholder and stakeholder value. She has conducted a broad range of engagements including sustainability visioning and stance definition; stakeholder mapping and materiality assessment; stakeholder engagement; benchmarking and sustainability assessment; management system design and audit; indicators, goals and metrics identification, design, measurement and reporting; cost-benefit and scenario analysis; governance and leadership structure design; and change management planning and implementation.
Prior to joining RBC, she was a Partner with Deloitte’s Enterprise Risk Services and the America’s Leader of Deloitte’s Sustainability and Climate Change(S&CC) Practice. In this role, she provided national direction and expertise in the areas of Environment, Health & Safety (EHS), Sustainability, Climate Change, Water and Energy Management across the Americas. She was also a member of Deloitte’s global Sustainability & Climate Change Leadership Team, and an advisor to Deloitte Canada’s internal corporate responsibility program.
In 2013, she was named as a member of Canada’s Clean 16 – leader in the consulting sector and is part of the Canadian Clean 50.
Valerie graduated from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering. She is fluent in French and Spanish.
Arthur Cohen is CEO of LaPlaca Cohen, a New York-based strategic marketing and communications firm serving the needs of cultural and creative organizations.

Arthur consults to organizations throughout the world, working with management, Boards, collectors, foundations, architects, sponsors, and educators on audience development, communications, visioning, and strategic planning initiatives.

Arthur is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Business School, and the London School of Economics. He is also a Lecturer at Stanford University, where he teaches a course focusing on culture and the changing cultural audience. Arthur is the Vice Chairman of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, and a Board member of the Architectural League of New York; NYC & Co.; and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. He has also served on the boards of the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania; the Harvard University Art Museums; the Center for Experimental Medicine at Harvard Medical School; Americans for the Arts; and the American Federation of Art.
Kate Cornell is an arts advocate, and writer based in Toronto. Kate advocates nationally on behalf of the arts sector as the Co-Chair of the Canadian Arts Coalition/la Coalition canadienne des arts. As English-language spokesperson for the Coalition, she has been interviewed by the Globe and Mail, Canadian Press, and CBC’s The National. With a PhD in Communication and Culture, her graduate research focused on Canadian cultural policies for dance at the federal level. Her research has been published extensively in anthologies, journals, magazines, and online. Kate has worked in arts management for two decades at a range of organizations including: the Canada Dance Festival, Toronto Dance Theatre, the CanAsian International Dance Festival, the National Ballet of Canada, the Canadian Society for Dance Studies/La
société canadienne d’études en danse, and most recently as the Canadian Dance Assembly’s Executive Director. Over the years, Kate has taught at several university performing arts and education programs; she now acts as a mentor in arts management internship programs. Kate sits on Advocacy Committees at the municipal and provincial levels; notably, she is a founding member of the Mass Culture/ Mobilisation Culturelle research lab initiative. Kate Cornell is the proud recipient of the John Hobday Award in Arts Management (2016) from the Canada Council for the Arts.
Phil Cox is currently an Associate Strategist at LaPlaca Cohen. With a background in both advertising and museums, he supports a range of clients through audience research, gap analyses, benchmarking, positioning, and strategic visioning. He has experience fusing quantitative research with qualitative and ethnographic methods to produce thoughtful, data-driven solutions. At LaPlaca Cohen, he is also the project manager for Culture Track, driving the development of the survey instrument and data analysis. In addition, he coordinates overall marketing strategy, including social media strategy, website development, event planning, and partnerships. Before coming to LaPlaca Cohen, Phil worked at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with highest honours.
Chris Creighton-Kelly is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and cultural critic born in the UK with South Asian/British roots. His artworks have been presented across Canada and in India, Europe and the USA. Chris has been persistently interested in questions of absence in art discourses. Whose epistemology is unquestioned? Who has power? Who does not? Why not?
For 30 years, Chris has worked extensively as an arts consultant for arts organizations, institutions and government agencies both in Canada and internationally. In 1989-91, Chris was a consultant to the Canada Council on issues of racial equity. His work launched two important offices – the Aboriginal Arts Office and the Equity Office which have subsequently led the way in transforming the Council from an exclusively Eurocentric arts agency to one in which multiple art traditions/practices are honoured and funded. In 1991-92, he worked at the Banff Centre designing and directing its first arts residency that dealt with Equity – Race and the Body Politic. In 2011, he co-authored, with France Trépanier, Understanding Aboriginal Arts in Canada Today. They are currently – 2016 to 2019 – co-directing Primary Colours/Couleurs primaires.
Chris appreciates his audiences a lot.
Geoffrey Crossick was Director of the Arts & Humanities Research Council’s Cultural Value Project, which explored the benefits of cultural engagement to individuals and society, and the methods by which those can be understood. Its report, Understanding the value of arts and culture, was published in April 2016. He is an urban social historian and Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the School of Advanced Study at the University of London. He was previously Vice-Chancellor of the University of London and Warden of Goldsmiths after being Chief Executive of the Arts & Humanities Research Board and taking it through to its establishment as a full research council in 2005. He is currently Chair of the Crafts Council and a member of boards in the higher education and cultural sectors, including Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the Horniman Museum and the National Film & Television School. He is a member of the Science Advisory Council of the UK Department for Culture, Media & Sport. He speaks in the UK and internationally on higher education and research strategy, the importance of the arts and humanities, and the creative and cultural sectors.
Catherine Crowston is the Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, has joined the Gallery in 1997. From 1994-1997, Crowston was the Director/Curator of the Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre (Banff, Alberta) and Editor of the Walter Phillips Gallery Editions. Prior to this, she was Assistant Curator at the Art Gallery of York University, Toronto (1986-1994) and was both an Editor and Chair of the Board of Directors of Fuse Magazine in Toronto (1989-1995).
Crowston was recently appointed to the curatorial team for the Canadian Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale, which will feature the media work of Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn, Isuma Productions. In 2016, Crowston served as the Commissioner for the Canadian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale of Architecture and was Canadian Commissioner for the Sydney Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2002. In that same year, she was awarded the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Visual Arts and the City of Edmonton Salute to Excellence Award in 2005. In 2015, Crowston was inducted into the City of Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame.
Michele Decottignies is a multiple award-winning artist, advocate and educator, with 30 years experience in the professional arts industry.
In 1999 she created Stage Left Productions: A collective of diverse artists who produce daring forms of political art and advocate for equity in the arts. She has since made Stage Left the leading contributor to the Deaf, Disability & Mad Arts domain, a global Centre for the Theatre of the Oppressed, and Canada’s only national arts equity support organization.
Michele is currently also the founder & Chair of the Deaf, Disability & Mad Arts Alliance of Canada, the co-Coordinator of the Calgary Collective for Equity & Diversity in the Arts (with Olivia Marie Golosky), and an arts equity educator and/or advisor to the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, the Canadian Dance Assembly, the Canadian Arts Presenting Association, Alberta Dance Alliance, the BC Arts Council, Calgary Arts Development and Dr. Linden (Lindsay) Crowshoe.
Dr. Sara Diamond is the President of OCAD University, Canada’s, “University of the Imagination”. She holds a PhD in Computing, Information Technology and Engineering, a Masters in Digital Media and Honours Bachelors of Arts in History and Communications. She is an appointee of the Order of Ontario and the Royal Canadian Academy of Artists and a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for service to Canada. She is the winner of the 2013 GRAND NCE Digital Media Pioneer Award, recognized as one of Toronto Life’s Top Fifty and. she is a Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto. She was recently honored as one of Canada’s 150 leading women. Since her appointment in 2005 she has led OCAD University’s evolution to a full university, helping to build its transdisciplinary and research-creation research capacity and infrastructure, integrate STEM subjects, create its Digital Futures Initiative, launch the Indigenous Visual Culture Program, strengthen its approach to inclusion, and grow its undergraduate and graduate programs in studio art and design. Diamond is a researcher in media arts history and policy, visual analytics and has created wearable technologies, mobile experiences and media art. Diamond was honoured with a 1992 retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada, represented Canada in festivals and biennials, and her works reside in collections such as the MoMA in New York City, National Gallery of Canada and Vancouver Art Gallery.
Kristine Germann is the Programming Manager, City Cultural Events with Arts & Culture Services at the City of Toronto. Kristine is a producer, curator, artist and advocate whose work has cultivated connections between audiences and culture through investigating the often-blurred boundaries between private and public. Her work includes leadership of city building initiatives, public art programs and cultural events that have illuminated Toronto including; Nuit Blanche Toronto, Doors Open Toronto, New Year’s Eve, Canada Days and Panamania. She has been an Artistic Associate at Harbourfront Centre and a co-founder of collective echoes based in Vancouver which produced collaborative public artworks. Kristine is a Director of Supercrawl Productions in Hamilton, Ontario and was the Chair of the Arts Funding Task Force, a working committee of Economic Development, Tourism and Culture division of the City of Hamilton. She is a graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
Gordon Gerrard is a respected figure in the new generation of Canadian musicians. Trained first as a pianist and subsequently as a specialist in operatic repertoire, Gordon brings a fresh perspective to the podium. He is active in symphonic, operatic and ballet repertoire throughout Canada and internationally. His passion and his dedication to producing thrilling musical experiences have endeared him to his fellow musicians and the public alike.
After an international search, Gordon was appointed the Music Director of the Regina Symphony Orchestra beginning in the 2016-2017 season. He was the Associate Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, a position which was created for him after two highly successful seasons there as Assistant Conductor. During his tenure there, Gordon led the orchestra in over a hundred performances. For four seasons Gordon held the positions of Resident Conductor and Repetiteur for Calgary Opera. He led many productions while in residence in Calgary, including LA BOHÈME, LAKMÈ, DIE FLEDERMAUS, and the Canadian premiere of Mark Adamo’s LITTLE WOMEN recorded for national broadcast on CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. He was invited back to help launch Calgary Opera’s summer opera festival Opera in the Village with productions of CANDIDEand THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE. During his tenure at Calgary Opera, Gordon was honoured with the Mayor’s Award for Emerging Artists for his contribution to the musical life of the city of Calgary. In December 2015, Gordon made his debut with The National Ballet of Canada; and in August 2016, Gordon made his European debut conducting TOSCA for Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg in Rheinsberg, Germany. Gordon has also conducted productions for Opera Hamilton to critical acclaim and was Assistant Conductor for several productions at Opera Lyra Ottawa. Gordon is also a regular guest conductor for Opera McGill, where he has led productions of DON GIOVANNI and LE NOZZE DI FIGARO.
Duane Green is president and CEO of Franklin Templeton Investments Canada and of Fiduciary Trust Company of Canada. Leveraging more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, he oversees Franklin Templeton’s Canadian business. Mr. Green previously served as managing director – Canada, responsible for the firm’s Canadian retail, institutional and HNW distribution business. Prior to that, he was head of Institutional, Canada. Mr. Green joined Franklin Templeton in 2004 as vice president, Strategic Alliances. Before joining the firm, he was a vice president at an international insurer.
Mr. Green is chair of the board and director of Franklin Templeton Investments Corp., director of Fiduciary Trust Company of Canada and is chair and director of FTC Investor Services Inc. He also serves as president, CEO and director of both Templeton Growth Fund Ltd and Franklin Templeton Corporate Class Funds Ltd. He is on the Board of Directors of the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC), the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance (CCGG) and Business for the Arts (BftA). He also sits on the Pension Committee of Canada’s National Ballet School and is a past board member of Canada’s National Ballet School and of Crohn’s and Colitis Canada. Mr. Green has a degree in economics from the University of Ottawa and is a fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute. He holds the FMA, CIM, and FCSI designations.
Sandy Houston is the President and CEO of the Metcalf Foundation. Sandy has led the development of Metcalf into a leading private foundation engaged in helping Canadians imagine and build a just, healthy and creative society. Prior to joining Metcalf, Sandy practised corporate litigation at Oslers and was a founding partner in Stitt Feld Handy Houston, Canada’s first law firm to focus predominantly on alternative dispute resolution.
Much of his current work is focused on creating opportunities for innovation and collaboration and in advancing new thinking and policy approaches. Sandy has been instrumental in the establishment of a number of Canadian not-for-profits. He was the founding chair of the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, an arms-length, public foundation created by the Government of Ontario to support the environmental and agricultural integrity of province’s new Greenbelt. He is currently the chair of Community Food Centres Canada and past chair of Philanthropic Foundations Canada. He is a director of the Tides Canada Foundation and the Toronto Community Foundation. He also serves as advisor to a number of charitable organizations including CivicAction, Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, and Imagine Canada. Sandy is a Senior Fellow at Massey College.
Howard R. Jang was appointed Vice President, Arts and Leadership, effective January 8, 2018 at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity. A native of Vancouver, BC, Jang came to Banff Centre from Simon Fraser University (SFU), where he was professor of Professional Practice in the School for the Contemporary Arts and Director of the SFU Woodward’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.Jang’s expertise and passion for the arts is demonstrated through his involvement with multiple regional and national boards including The Canada Council for the Arts, Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, and the Vancouver Foundation’s Arts and Culture Advisory
Grazyna Krupa is a creative media executive with over 20 years experience in the development, production and delivery of fine television programs and digital series. She oversees CBC`s Arts programming strategy and is also a key member of the programming and development team for all Unscripted projects at CBC. As the lead on televised and digital Arts programming for the public broadcaster, she is responsible for developing and overseeing an innovative Arts vertical: www.cbc.ca/arts, and a weekly Arts program called CBC ARTS: Exhibitionists, featuring the most surprising, relevant and provocative stories from artists from diverse communities across Canada.
Mr. Loring is an accomplished Canadian playwright, actor and director and was the winner of the Governor General’s Award for English Language Drama for his outstanding play, Where the Blood Mixes in 2009. The play explores the intergenerational effects of the residential school system. It toured nationally and was presented at the National Arts Centre in 2010, when Mr. Loring was serving as the NAC’s Playwright in Residence.
A Nlaka’pamux from the Lytton First Nation in British Columbia, Loring created the Songs of the Land project in 2012 in partnership with five separate organizations in his home community. The project explores 100-year-old audio recordings of songs and stories of the N’lakap’amux People. Loring has written two new plays based on his work with the community including Battle of the Birds, about domestic violence and power abuse, and The Boy Who Was Abandoned, about youth and elder neglect.
A versatile artist and leader Loring has served as the co-curator of the Talking Stick Festival, as Artist in Residence at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre, as Artistic Director of the Savage Society in Vancouver, as a Documentary Producer of Canyon War: The Untold Story, and as the Project Leader/Creator, and Director of the Songs of the Landproject in his home community of Lytton First Nation.
In 2017, Ruth Mackenzie became the first woman to be Artistic Director of the Theatre du Châtelet in Paris with co- director Thomas Lauriot dit Prévost, for which she is now planning her first season which will be 2019/20. She was appointed Artistic Director of Holland Festival in 2013, on a five year contract delivering four festivals 2015-2018 in Amsterdam.
On March 26th 2018, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, announced Ruth Mackenzie, is appointed president o the London chapter of Arts Council England, the British Arts Finance Agency. She will succeed Veronica Wadley, who will leave her office on 30/06/2018.
She was Director of the London 2012 Festival (the official cultural programme for the London 2012 Games), widely regarded as the most successful cultural programme of any modern Olympics & Paralympic Games.
She has also been General Director of Scottish Opera and the Manchester International Festival, Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre, consultant dramaturg of the Vienna Festwochen, special adviser to 5 Secretaries of State for Culture, Media & Sport and consultant to the Barbican Centre, the LSO, Google, the BBC and the Tate, amongst others.
Anne joined Burgundy in May 2008. As a member of Burgundy’s Private Client Group, she is responsible in a fiduciary capacity for managing client portfolios and relationship development. In March 2014, Anne joined the U.S. Client Group as a Senior Relationship Manager to focus on the firm’s U.S. business. In April 2014, she launched “The Women of Burgundy” to inspire Burgundy’s women clients to make investing a priority. In May 2015, Anne assumed responsibility for Burgundy’s marketing and communications initiatives and in August 2015 she was appointed a Vice-President of the firm.
Anne graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Science degree (Basic Medical Sciences) and an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree (History of Fine Art and Cinema Studies). She was awarded the Canadian Investment Manager (CIM) designation in 2007 and the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in May 2012.
Anne is a member of the CFA Institute, the New York Society of Security Analysts and the Toronto CFA Society. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Opera Company, the Toronto Public Library Foundation, and Crow’s Theatre.
Nathalie Maillé is the Executive Director of the Conseil des arts de Montréal since July 2013. Founded in 1956, this institution identifies, supports and recognizes excellence and innovation in professional creation, production and presentation, assisting over 400 artistic organizations in Montreal. After assuming her duties, she made use of her in-depth knowledge of the policies and issues in culture and the arts to carry out a large-scale organizational restructuring. This initiative was aimed at decompartmentalization and a relaxing of the operational rules, while emphasizing such organizational values as excellence, boldness, creativity, close contact and transparency. She also helped to advance the cause of equality by ensuring that the contributions from culturally diverse and emerging artists are fully recognized.
Nathalie Maillé holds a B.A. in dance from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), as well as a Graduate Diploma in Management of Cultural Organizations from HEC Montréal. She is a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee and the Audit Committee of UQAM and represents the City of Montreal on the Board of Directors of Les Arts et la Ville. In addition, she is involved with T.A.M, an organization that fosters leadership skills among adolescents and serve as a sponsor with the Jeune chambre de commerce de Montréal. In 2015, she was awarded the Prix Femmes d’affaires du Québec.
David Maggs is active in the arts and academia. He is the pianist for Dark by Five (darkbyfive.com), has written works for the stage, worked in augmented reality, and is developing a digital immersion lab with partners from across Canada. David is the director of the interarts festival Gros Morne Summer Music (gmsm.ca), founder and publisher of Old Crow Magazine (oldcrowmagazine.com), and the director of The Graham Academy, a youth performing arts training academy. He is the creator and co-producer of an upcoming CBC documentary about indigenous identity in Eastern Canada. David’s academic focus is on cultural dimensions of sustainability. His doctoral thesis Artists of the Floating World led to the SSHRC funded Sustainability in the Imaginary World led by PI John Robinson
(www.imaginesustainability.today). His research focuses on the theoretical and methodological challenges of art in transdisciplinary relationships, and understanding and engaging with sustainability challenges beyond their technical and managerial dimensions. He has been a featured speaker at the Canadian Arts Summit, The International Transdisciplinarity Conference, National Valuing Nature Conference, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, and elsewhere.
Originaire du Témiscamingue, Jolyanne Mathieu dirige des projets à géométrie variable pour la Société des arts technologiques [SAT] à Montréal depuis 2011. Diplômée en informatique, en création multimédia, en gestion de projets et en leadership, elle se consacre activement au déploiement du réseau Scènes ouvertes. Ce nouveau réseau de salles branchées vise à établir des liens entre les espaces urbains et ruraux. Créer des œuvres artistiques en téléprésence, stimuler les interactions entre les publics, collaborer à distance et partager les expertises sont autant de possibilités pour dynamiser l’occupation du territoire nationale et internationale grâce à cette technologie de téléprésence développée par les équipes de la SAT.
Judy Matthews has leveraged her professional planning expertise to help realize an impressive variety of initiatives that have enriched Toronto and the lives of its citizens. These include the revitalization of St. George Street, the development of the Open Space Master Plan at the University of Toronto, and the creation of theMusic Garden at Harbourfront Centre.
In 2016 she and her husband Wilmot, initiated The Bentway, a bold, new civic endeavor to repurpose vacant space under Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway, and turn it into a pedestrian and cycling path, and a vibrant civic space that will be a venue for arts and cultural programming. Judy has also taken a leadership role in other cultural institutions such as Evergreen, Park People, Artscape and the Canadian Opera Company.
As Judy’s passion, dedication and her unique projects continue to inspire others to increase their giving, community involvement and enjoyment of the public realm, she will continue to increase the city’s livability to the benefit of all of us.
Alex has established himself as an internationally-renowned creator of highly innovative and emotionally compelling experiences that blend design with art to create unique media-based experiences.
Alex has a long history of working with Peter Gabriel, most notably they created the multi-award winning Ceremony of Innocence. In 2015 Alex was nominated for an Emmy and won a Kids Screen Award for Time Tremors a transmedia project which included a treasure hunt for kids based at the Art Gallery of Ontario done with Xenophile Media. Other notable collaborators include MIT, the Royal Shakespeare Company in the UK and best selling author/world creator Brian Froud.
Alex recently co-founded the mixed reality company Impossible Things with Ian Kelso. They launched their first project in 2017, the highly acclaimed ReBlink, an augmented reality show that refreshes and re-imagines the traditional gallery viewing experience at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Dr. Julie Nagam (Meětis – Anishinaabe/French, German/Syrian) is the Chair of the History of Indigenous Art in North America, a joint appointment between the University of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. She is an Associate Professor in the faculty of History. She has recently published Traveling soles: Tracing the footprints of our stolen sisters (2017); Deciphering the refusal of the digital and binary codes of sovereignty/ self-determination and civilized/savage (2016); be polite…. because the settlers might be listening and watching (2016). Her current SSHRC funded projects include The Transactive Memory Keepers: Indigenous Public Engagement in Digital and New Media Labs and Exhibitions (www.glamcollective.ca). Nagam hosted and organized The Future is Indigenous
(http://abtec.org/iif/symposia/3rd-annual-symposium/) and the International Indigenous curators exchange with Australia, Canada, Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Finland. She is co-editor of Indigenous Art: New Media and the Digital, a special issue of PUBLIC journal. She has curated and exhibited at ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival and in 2013 she curated Lisa Rehiana’s new media installation in pursuit of venus at A-Space Gallery in Toronto, Canada. Currently, Dr. Nagam is curating a public art installation for a Reconciliation Walk at The Forks in Winnipeg, and leading a team that is creating an Indigenous App for Winnipeg’s art, architectural, and place-based history. She has co-curated with Jaimie Isaac
INSURGENCE/RESURGENCE, the largest contemporary exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in fall 2017-18. Her artwork where white pines lay over the water, was shown in, Toronto, Ontario, San Paulo, Brazil, Lyon, France, Wellington, New Zealand. Her installation singing our bones home was shown in Markham, in London, England and in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Nagam has new public artwork, Electrical Currents for Winnipeg Arts Council, commissioned work for Nuit Blanche Manitowapow, speaking to the moon, in Toronto, Canada fall of 2017, and newly commissioned work for Smithsonian’s exhibition Transformers in New York, USA, 2017-18 and The future is in the Land, a solo exhibition at A-Space, Toronto Canada.
Nik Nanos leads Nanos Research, one of Canada’s most distinguished research companies. The Nanos Research Group of Companies includes Signal Leadership Communications, a social public relations firm with images to create, issues to manage, relationships to build and reputations to protect in a digitally disrupted era. It also includes Nanos-dimap Analytika, an analytics and targeting research practice which is a joint venture with dimap, one of Germany’s top research organizations.
He is the Chairman of Nanos Research, a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, and a research associate professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is also the current Vice Chair of Carleton University in Ottawa which has 28 thousand students and a budget of over $400M.
Nik leads the team behind the weekly Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index, considered a must-have resource for senior executives and is also featured in a weekly segment on CTV’s News Channel,Nanos on the Numbers, which focuses on the latest political, business and social trends.
He is the pollster for CTV News, Canada’s largest private broadcaster, the Globe& Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, Bloomberg News in Canada.
Nik’s new book published in 2018, the Age of Voter Rage, examines the rise of populist politics in the US, the UK, Canada and France, the restructuring of citizen engagement and how small swings in voter sentiment have a disproportionate impact on democratic outcomes.
Email: nik@nanos.co Twitter: @niknanos
William took up the role of Managing Director of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in October 2015. He has since introduced Haus Musik, an immersive concert experience for new audiences, started a sold-out series of chamber music concerts, forged new artistic partnerships and has overseen the introduction of new Music Director Elisa Citterio.
In over ten years with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, he developed The Night Shift, a ground-breaking series attracting new, younger audiences, as well as reshaping the Orchestra’s public image and presiding over a 150% increase in ticket sales. Prior to this, at the London Philharmonic Orchestra, he launched the NOISE student programme, the first of its kind in London.
In 2013 William completed the Fellowship at the Kennedy Center, Washington DC, and was a 2014 Fellow of the International Society of Performing Arts. He holds an MA in European Cultural Policy and Administration from the University of Warwick.
Naki is the Director of Partnerships and Engagement for the Global Corporate Citizenship department at TD Bank. Naki’s team develops partnership and engages individuals and organizations in support of the Bank’s purpose to enrich lives. Among her team’s responsibilities include: enterprise-wide employee engagement campaigns, including the United Way annual employee giving campaign; the TD Volunteer Network; TD’s Arts and Archives department and the TD Scholarship for Community Leadership. Prior to coming to TD, Naki worked in Executive Talent Management at CIBC supporting the development of executives and ‘near-executives’ while also working to diversify the executive pipeline; was an HR Director, and led the corporate diversity and legacy strategies for the TORONTO2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games; and developed several city-building projects and leadership development programs at CivicAction, including co-creating DiverseCity Fellows, North America’s first “civic MBA”. She is also an avid volunteer and has served on the Boards of Seneca College, West Neighbourhood House, BMW Foundation’s Young Leaders Transatlantic Forum and was a speech coach for TEDxToronto.
Brian Quirt is the Artistic Director of the Toronto theatre company Nightswimming, and Director of the Banff Centre Playwrights Lab. With Nightswimming he has commissioned and developed 30 new works, created eight of his own plays, and directed the premieres and national tours of many Nightswimming productions including new works by Judith Thompson, Anita Majumdar, Carmen Aguirre, Anosh Irani, Jason Sherman and Jane Urquhart. He’s held senior positions at the Great Canadian Theatre Company, Factory Theatre, The Theatre Centre and Canadian Stage Company. His work as director, dramaturg and playwright has been seen at theatres across Canada. Brian is the current Board Chair and a past-President of the Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA). http://nightswimmingtheatre.com/
Diane is currently Asst. Professor and Program Director for the Arts Management and Entrepreneurship MA at The New School in NYC; has held teaching posts at Yale University, Erasmus University in Rotterdam, and University of Wisconsin-Madison; and has developed leadership courses for Banff Centre, Qatar Museums, and the Arts Marketing Association of the UK. She writes an arts and culture blog for ArtsJournal.com (called Jumper). Alongside various academic posts, she has been an adviser to arts organizations, government agencies, and private philanthropies and a keynote speaker at dozens of arts conferences around the world. From 2004-2010 Ragsdale served as program officer for theatre and dance at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, having previously held executive roles at the contemporary performing arts centre On the Boards (Seattle, WA) and a music festival located in the resort town of Sandpoint, Idaho. She has also had stints at a number of other festivals.
Jill Robinson is President & CEO of TRG Arts, an international management consulting firm working with arts and cultural organization clients in four countries. TRG clients seek sustainable revenue and operational practices, and results tell their story: organizations working with TRG experience 10-18% annual revenue increases and transformative capacity-building change.
As an entrepreneur and leadership expert, Jill is an inspiration to arts chief executives from around the world who attend her Executive Summits and subscribe to her publication, The Arts Leadership Quarterly. Jill has presented at countless industry conferences, including recent keynotes at the UK Theatre Touring Symposium in London, the Broadway League Spring Road Conference in New York City, and the Dance/USA International Dance Manager’s convening in Copenhagen. She serves on faculty at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, and she was honored to join the inaugural faculty for the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s Cultural Leadership Program.
With a strong business instinct and a love of the arts, Jill is a true believer in the power of arts and culture to transform individuals and communities. You can find Jill on Twitter at @jrobinsontrg or on LinkedIn.
Devyani Saltzman is a Canadian writer, curator and journalist with a deep interest in the intersection between art and ideas.She is the author of Shooting Water (Publishers Weekly, Library Journal starred reviews, ‘A poignant memoir’ The New York Times) and is the Director of Literary Arts at the Banff Centre as well as the Founding Curator, Literary Programming, at Luminato, North America’s largest multi arts festival and Toronto’s Festival of Arts and Creativity. Her work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, National Post, The Atlantic and Tehelka, India’s weekly of arts and investigative journalism amongst many other publications. She sits on the advisory committee for Project Bookmark Canada and has been a juror for the National Magazine Awards, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and The Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. Saltzman has a degree in Anthropology and Sociology from Oxford University.
Video artist, orientated towards installation art, electro-acoustic music of the 80s, Monique Savoie has been involved in the avant-garde of Montreal, in various capacities of different artistic domains. In 1995, she led the 6th symposium of electronic arts, ISEA95 Montreal, an event which was key to placing Montreal on the international stage for digital arts. In 1996, she founded the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT), which she heads, while directing the arts and development sectors.
With more than 36 000 members, the SAT provides a networking hub, at a time when digital culture is radically transforming our way of thinking, creating and diffusing art. Since 1996, she has created a multidisciplinary centre for research, creation, production, formation, and diffusion, dedicated to the advancement and preservation of digital culture. The SAT is also a major centre for the Montreal’s technological arts with an internationally renowned in the domain.
Recognized in 2014 for her work by the city of Montreal, Monique Savoie was awarded the “Bâtisseuse du 21e siècle” prize and was made a Chevalier (Knight) of the Ordre des arts et des lettres de la République française (Order of Arts and Letters) of France in 2017. Since August 2016, she represents the SAT as a partner of the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris, until 2022.
Christine Sokaymoh Frederick is an urban Aboriginal Cree-Métis with has thirty-five years of experience in multiple artistic disciplines. She is co-founder and artistic director of Alberta Aboriginal Performing Arts and producer of the annual Rubaboo Arts Festival (10th annual in 2019) and ED of the Dreamspeakers Film Festival. She is the first Indigenous Associate Artist of the Citadel Theatre and appointee to Vice Chair of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, first Indigenous board member of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and sits on the national Canada2020 Frankfurt Book Fair board. She’s attended the University of Alberta, the Banff Centre for Arts, and the University for Peace (Costa Rica, Indigenous Rights in the Field). She is a former Chair of the Edmonton Arts Council, and has sat as board member of the Dreamspeakers Film Festival and the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance. She served on the committees for the ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞ one of the first Indigenous Public Art Parks in the world She is the recipient of the 2007 Esquao Award in Arts, and the 2016 Mayor’s award for Excellence in Artistic Leadership.
A cultural shifter, director and dramaturg, Sarah is the Associate Artistic Director, English Theatre at Canada’s National Arts Centre, creative catalyst SpiderWebShow, and a former Artistic Director of several companies including Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Throughout her award-winning career, Sarah has been engaged with work and communities from coast to coast and internationally. Recent directing Kill Me Now (RMTC/NAC) Bunny (Tarragon Theatre and Stratford Festival) Helen Lawrence (UCLA, Arts Club, CanStage, BAM, Kammerspiele etc) We Keep Coming Back (Chutzpah! WJT) In 2016 Sarah was awarded The LMDA Elliot Hayes Award for dramaturgy, in 2017 best production and direction from the inaugural Winnipeg Theatre Awards and was named the 2018 Honorary Member CATR/ACRT. Sarah is a PhD student at Queen’s University.
France Trépanier is a visual artist, curator and researcher of Kanien’kéha:ka and French ancestry. Her artistic and curatorial work has been presented in many venues in Canada and Europe. Her artworks are included in various public and private collections. France worked at the Canada Council for the Arts before becoming a Senior Arts Policy Advisor for the Department of Canadian Heritage. She held a diplomatic post as First Secretary, Cultural Affairs at the Canadian Embassy in Paris and directed the Centre for New Media at the Canadian Cultural Centre. France was the co-recipient, with Chris Creighton-Kelly, of the 2012 Audain Aboriginal Curatorial Fellowship by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. France and Chris are now directing Primary Colours/Couleurs primaires, a three-year initiative, which seeks to place Indigenous art practices at the centre of the Canadian art system. France is co-chair of the Indigenous Program Council at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Karlee has always felt a dual passion for both arts and business, leading her to obtain a degree in Business of Cinematic Arts from the University of Southern California. During her time in Los Angeles, she created a thriving career in television production before moving home to Toronto to become a financial advisor, primarily for professional women and philanthropic minded individuals. She is driven to make an impact in the arts through her roles as Executive Director of The Michael & Karen Vukets Family Foundation, Chair of the First Positions Patrons at Canada’s National Ballet School, and committee member of artScene Toronto through Business for the Arts.
Experiencing the impact that dance had on her life growing up, Karlee firmly believes that exposure to the arts doesn’t just make great artists… it makes great citizens. She shares her diverse expertise with arts organizations to amplify the impact of young patrons in the arts sector.
Carolyn Warren is Director General of Arts Granting Programs at Canada Council for the Arts, Canada’s national public arts funder. Granting programs foster and promote the production and distribution of works in the arts and support enjoyment of the arts by audiences in Canada and around the world. Previously, Carolyn was Senior Arts Advisor at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and before that, Vice-President of Arts, overseeing programming forartists across many disciplines at all stages of their careers. Committed to supporting all forms of contemporary artistic expression, Warren is a passionate advocate for the importance of technology both in artistic production and dissemination. She is a strong supporter of public funding for the arts based on collaboration between Canada Council and the arts sector and believes in creative partnerships between the arts sector and others to ensure that the arts play a vital role in Canada’s public life. Before joining the Banff Centre, Warren was Manager of Cultural Programs at CBC, based in Montreal, where she was responsible for local and national talk and music programs for Radio One and Radio 2, network TV programming featuring independent productions by Quebec filmmakers and innovative online arts initiatives for CBC Books.