DASSAN19: Speakers

Sha(ina) Agbayani, Founder
Rootcare (Toronto)

Sha is a trans-disciplinary creator of song, saver of seeds, technologesse of fermentation, and caretaker of mama earth based in tkaronto and diasporic from the northern Philippines isles. Her work connects with land, water, and all our relations as the core technology of art, healing, and revolution.

Jessa Agilo, Founder, President + CEO
ArtsPond (Toronto)

elle alconcel, Programmer, Producer, Curator
(Toronto)

elle alconcel is committed to the diversification of Toronto’s art and culture scene. As a programmer, producer and curator, her principal areas of interest is in championing the work of culturally diverse artists. She facilitates programs and spaces that are designed for creative practitioners. As the former Curator of Exhibitions & Programs at Artscape, she was integral to establishing Daniels Spectrum as a cultural hub and breeding ground for promising artists.

Sue Biely, President
Nudge Consulting (Vancouver)

Sue Biely is the program designer and facilitator of Digital Ladders. A trailblazer in Canadian independent media, Sue designs and facilitates innovative initiatives to enable the sector to adapt to and utilize ever-changing forces. With a history in content, policy, business models, conference design, workshop delivery, partnerships and campaigns — Sue continually works to bring a diversity of voices and mediums to storytelling and innovation for the common good. She is President of Nudge Consulting, Founder of InsideGreen.ca, Executive Producer of Good Pitch Vancouver, and Volunteer Board Vice President of Crazy8s Film Society.

Evond Blake (Mediah)
IAH Digital (Toronto)

Evond Blake is an internationally renowned multidisciplinary visual artist who has worked under the pseudonym MEDIAH for over 24 years. Heavily inspired by avionics, mechanical engineering, and schematics, Blake strives to create visual content that depicts otherworldly dimensions through an abstract lens. MEDIAH produces bold artwork that captures the essence of speed, motion, and force by weaving together dynamic street art forms with traditional painterly techniques. Blake’s work illustrates both the beauty and chaos that results from humanity’s insatiable desire to push boundaries and explore the unknown.

Padina Bondar, Designer
(Toronto)

Padina uses fashion as a platform to confront critical gender-based violations of human rights with informative, credible, and engaging content that can create a network of impact, all while advocating sustainable/ethical practices in fashion, business, and social action. She is an internationally exhibited designer, has participated in numerous runway shows, exhibitions and competitions and trained under famous couturier Deborah Milner in London.

Wesley Cabarios
MVDHOUSE (Toronto)

Wesley Cabarios is a creative entrepreneur specializing in art and expression. He stands for helping POCs, LGBTQ+, marginalized, and minority artists find a positive voice. He does so by organizing events and providing resources that would normally be neglected for their specific group. In the past he has organized music festivals, film screenings, and many more communal activities in support of diversity.

Michael Chappell, CEO
Culture Counts (Perth/Melbourne, Australia)

In 2011, Michael developed Culture Counts, a system for evaluating any investment or activity that has an economic or social impact for individuals and the community including cultural centres, arts events or festivals and business precincts. He has worked extensively in the Arts sector. He is the former Chairman of PVI Collective, a West Australian Contemporary Arts organisation, and he served as Chairman and Board Member for West Australian Ballet.

Michael has over 20 years of economic policy and strategy consulting experience, augmented with formal training in Corporate Strategy Development through Stanford University and postgraduate qualifications from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Akoulina Connell, Corporate Agility Consultant
(Winnipeg)

Akoulina Connell is an arts advocate and culture sector executive who catalyzes systems transformation through co-creation and data innovation strategies to increase corporate agility improve transparency, and deepen public engagement. She has worked in both the public and private sectors; she has led two provincial funding agencies, worked for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, Statistics Canada, Service Canada, and Transport Canada, was managing editor of a literary press, and worked IT sector for a project management software developer and an e-learning module developer.

Ariane Couture, Conseillère en développement de la recherche
Université Laval (Quebec)

Ariane Couture received her doctorate in Musicology from University of Montreal with a thesis focusing on Montreal’s contemporary music organisms from 1966 to 2006 (2013). Her research interests include the sociology of music and research-creation and she did a postdoctoral fellowship at University Laval within the Groupe de recherche-création en musique (GRECEM) of Observatoire interdisciplinaire de creation et de recherche en musique (OICRM) for which she received a GRECEM’s Scholarship (2013-2014) and an OICRM’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Scholarship (2014-2015). Besides, Ariane Couture is currently Research Development Advisor at the Vice-Rectorate for Research and Innovation at University Laval. She is also the Francophone Editor for Intersections: Canadian Journal of Music.

Ron Davis, Pianist, Composer, Lawyer
(Toronto)

One of jazz’s most original voices today, Ron Davis is a piano virtuoso, composer, and recording artist with 12 acclaimed albums. Ron has toured widely and is the founder of the multi-genre music phenomenon SymphRONica, repeat performers on BBC, CBC, the Pan Am Games and beyond. Ron’s charity work includes his role as Secretary of the Glenn Gould Foundation. Ron is also a lawyer and former French professor. He publishes articles on law, music, and linguistics.

Mila Dechef-Tweddle, Manager
Nordicity (Toronto)

Mila Dechef-Tweddle is a Manager at Nordicity, an international consulting firm specialized in strategy, policy and economic analysis in the cultural and creative industries. Mila’s consulting work at Nordicity focuses largely on helping her clients proactively respond to stakeholder needs using evidence-based analysis that considers the technological, economic and policy trends impacting the cultural and creative industries. Mila holds a B.A. (Honours) from Concordia University and a Master of Museum Studies from the University of Toronto.

Cimeon Ellerton, Chief Operating Officer
The Audience Agency (London, UK)

Following seven years in arts development for local government, Cimeon Allerton joined The Audience Agency to build and manage Audience Finder, now the largest source of aggregated audience data and insight in the world. He has worked with arts organisations of all sizes to develop rapid-prototyping and data-driven decision-making approaches in the creative industries.

Cimeon’s career in the arts began when he trained as a professional musician at Trinity College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he was awarded a master’s degree (merit) in composition. He also has a Post Graduate Certificate in Creative Commerce from the University of Greenwich and is chair of Lewisham Education Arts Network – a charity championing arts education by empowering artist educators and those that work with them.

Cimeon is now working on the next generation of user-centered and AI enhanced data tools for the cultural sector.

Carly Frey, Managing Director
Nordicity West (Toronto)

Carly Frey is a specialist in the design and implementation of effective policy interventions for the advancement of the global creative and digital economy. Having built much of her expertise overseas at the intersection of international development practice and the creative industries, Carly has been active in the promotion of sustainable bridges between culture, commerce and innovation. Her practice includes business strategy formation, financial analysis, regulatory policy development, economic-modelling solutions and program evaluation for clients as diverse as the British Council, the City of Vancouver, UNESCO, and the Canadian Live Music Association.

Heran Genene

Heran Genene is an explorer, thinker, content creator, community mobilizer and vlogger.  She is interested in exploring the future of remote work and freelancer work. She is looking at the future of digital “nomad-ing” and for ways to bridge opportunity gaps for equally talented creative youths outside of North America – specifically, youth who face disproportionately more barriers to paid opportunities and networks.  This year she started an agency called Digital Knowmads.

Camille Georgeson-Usher, Director of Programming
Aboriginal Curatorial Collective / Collectif des commissaires autochtones (Toronto)

Camille Georgeson-Usher is a Coast Salish/Sahtu Dene/Scottish scholar, artist, and writer from Galiano Island, BC of the Pune’laxutth’ (Penelakut) Nation. She completed her MA in Art History at Concordia University where she worked to prove the impact of the performing arts in building confidence and leadership amongst Indigenous youth by learning to talk/embody discussions about safer sexual practices.

She is currently a PhD candidate in the Cultural Studies department at Queen’s University and has been awarded the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships-Doctoral for her research-creation workaround urban Indigenous experiences within Indigenous arts collectives and other groups activating public spaces through gestures both little and big. She was also the first-place winner of the 2018 Canadian Art Writing Prize.

Priam Givord, Interactive Art Director , VR UI-UX designer, Computational Designer
(Toronto)

Priam GIVORD is a senior digital artist, free-lance director and designer. Born in France and living in Toronto, Canada. His works range from large interactive installations to Virtual Reality. He has been exhibited internationally at venues like the NYC MET and the SIGGRAPH conference in California. Priam also teaches & writes curriculum for universities like NYU and OCADU. His recent work includes the famous VR installation Small Wonders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc4MA8srQDM

Valentine Goddard, Founder + CEO
Artificial Intelligence Impact Alliance [AIIA] (Montréal)

Aphiraa Gowry, Artist
(Toronto)

Aphiraa Gowry is a multi-faceted artist; she makes paintings, digital drawings, photography, garments, and fusions of these mediums. She has a fundamental instinct, throughout her artistic initiatives, to explore and integrate eco-consciousness— as a set of practical principles, but also as an overall worldview framed by certain values. She feels that young artists have a special power to contribute solutions to the daunting environment-related challenges of our time.

Dr. Sara Grimes, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information and Visiting Professor in Book and Media Studies, University of St. Michael’s College
University of Toronto (Toronto)

Dr. Sara M. Grimes is Director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute and Semaphore Labs, as well as Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. Her work is centered in the areas of children’s digital media culture(s), play studies, and critical theories of technology, with a focus on digital games. Her published work explores the commercialization of children’s play culture and creative expression, discussions of intellectual property and fair dealing in child-specific digital environments, as well as the legal and ethical dimensions of marketing to children online. Her work appears in numerous academic journals, edited collections and readers, and she regularly presents her research at national and international conferences, workshops and festivals. Community outreach is a core part of her professional practice. Most recently, Professor Grimes was Principal Investigator on a multi-year, cross-sector, transnational research collaboration called the Kids DIY Media Partnership, which identified key opportunities and challenges associated with children’s “do-it-yourself” media platforms, and investigated their implications for children’s creativity, learning, cultural rights, and well-being.

Candice Houtekier, Digital Content Manager
(Toronto)

Originally from France, Candice holds an M.A. in Art History from the University of Montreal and moved to Toronto one year ago to start her career. She works in freelance as a Digital Content Manager for the Art Canada Institute, commercial art galleries and private art collectors. She spends her free time learning how to design and program an art gallery in Unity and documents her virtual reality adventures on Instagram (@VR_me_Candice)

Omer Ismael, Manager of Launchpad Programs
Artscape (Toronto)

Omer Ismael is most excited by work at the intersection of culture, education and sustainable development. Throughout his career, he has focused on combatting inequality through resource mobilization, education, and advocacy. Currently, he is Program Manager at Artscape Daniels Launchpad where he manages the design and delivery of educational programs for creative entrepreneurs. He’s had the pleasure of facilitating 100+ workshops on behalf of the Royal Ontario Museum, Luminato Festival, and the City of Toronto.

Frédéric Julien, Director of Research and Development
CAPACOA (Ottawa)

Frédéric Julien has been active in the performing arts for several years as an artist, an arts administrator, a consultant, an advocate, and a divergent thinker. Frédéric currently leads research and development activities at the Canadian Arts Presenting Association. As part of the Digital Innovation Council for the Performing Arts, he co-authored with Inga Petri the seminal research report “Digitizing the Performing Arts” and he recently launched the Linked Digital Future initiative. Other research contributions include “The Value of Presenting” (2013), an analysis of “Trends Among Recipients of the Canada Arts Presentation Fund” (2015), “Pathways in Audience Research” (2016), “Vital Signs: Arts and Belonging” (2017), and “Vitality and Impact of Arts Presenting” (2019). Volunteer engagements include: Co-Chair of the Canadian Arts Coalition, board member of Arts Health Network Canada, and Chair of his neighbourhood association in Gatineau.

KyViTa, Producer, Media Artist
(Toronto) 

Kyle (a.k.a KyViTa) is a Toronto-based producer and multi-media artist. He was born in Manila, Philippines and moved to Canada at 8 years old. His skills in English and Tagalog were both underdeveloped at the time. Not having fully grown in either culture, he faced challenges with self-identity and connecting with others through language. He has made it a goal for himself to find ways to connect without using language.

Aaron Labbé, Founder + CTO
The Lucid Project  (Toronto) 

Aaron Labbé is a mad-identified intermedia artist, designer and entrepreneur based in Toronto, Canada. The driving-force of his work includes madness narratives and discourse, mental health reform and explorations of the psyche. His specialities include interactive experience design, experimental music and computational art. Aside from his independent art practice, Aaron is the Founder & CTO of LUCID, a Toronto-based startup working at the intersection of music, machine learning and mental wellness.

Magdalena Lagerlund
Museum London (London, Ontario)

With an academic research background in epidemiology, Magdalena Lagerlund is currently the project coordinator for the Museum London Idea Incubator – Digital Solutions for Arts Education and Engagement, a digital strategy initiative funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. She has previously supported Museum London with research and fundraising assistance for their new learning and community space, Centre at the Forks.

Margaret Lam, Founder
BeMused Network (Kitchener-Waterloo)

Margaret Lam (Masters Information Studies) is the founder of BeMused Network, a networked-marketplace designed to improve the social and economic impact of the arts. She is a published information science researcher, a seasoned print and digital designer, a trained classical pianist and an advocate for the arts. Her SSHRC-funded research at University of Toronto on music knowledge sharing platforms and the design of domain-specific information systems has been published as journal articles, a book chapter, and presented at conferences on knowledge management, information professionals, ethnomusicology, and digital futures, around the world. Margaret is also the co-Founder and Co-Curator of the Digital Arts Services Symposium, and currently serves as an advisor on the Action Research phase of CAPACOA’s (Linked Digital Future initiative.

Tammy Lee, Co-Founder + CEO
Culture Creates (Montréal)

Tammy Lee is a career arts manager turned entrepreneur dedicated to taking on ambitious projects that help the arts thrive. She is co-founder and CEO of Culture Creates. Culture Creates makes information on what’s happening in the performing arts compatible with an AI-powered world – making this information easier to find, share, collect and disseminate. Their goal is to work with cultural organizations to build the world’s most trusted data source on what’s happening in the arts.  Tammy and her co-founder Gregory Saumier-Finch seek to position the arts sector as a world leader in leveraging linked open data and in adopting a collective data governance model.

Mary Elizabeth Luka
Assistant Professor, Arts, Media & Culture Management; Interim Program Director, Arts Management, Department of Arts, Culture, Media (UTSC) and Faculty of Information (iSchool), University of Toronto

Dr. Mary Elizabeth (“M.E.”) Luka is an Assistant Professor of Arts, Media & Culture Management at the Department of Arts, Culture, Media (UTSC), with a cross-appointment at the Faculty of Information (iSchool). Dr. Luka is an award-winning scholar, activist and digital media producer for arts, social enterprises, broadcasting and telecommunications, and creative management policy, planning and practice. She studies modes and meanings of creativity and innovation in the digital age, to investigate how arts, culture, media and civic sectors are networked together. Dr. Luka is also co-investigator on Archive/Counter-Archive: Activating Canada’s Moving Image Heritage, a six-year national partnership involving several universities and cultural organizations. Sje is a member of the 2018 Conference Programming Committee for the international Association of Internet Researchers. She is Past Chair of the Board for Arts Nova Scotia, the provincial funding agency, as well as a past member of the Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council, NSCAD University’s Board of Directors, and of the Provincial and Territorial Advisory Group of Cultural Human Resources Council. Dr. Luka is a founding member of the public art and research group, Narratives in Space + Time Society, which intervenes in site-specific spaces to generate art and storytelling practices as modes of civic engagement.

Peter Lyman, Senior Partner
Nordicity (Toronto)

Peter Lyman is founding and Senior Partner of Nordicity. Peter’s expertise is in policy development and assessment, economic analysis and innovation, and business strategy and governance in the digital and traditional media, cultural, and communications sectors. On behalf of Harbourfront and 11 other major cultural organizations, Peter led the Toronto Arts of Tomorrow Initiative (TATI), a transformation project for the Canada Council’s Digital Strategy Fund, and is an active proponent of further DSF applications.

Jerrold McGrath, President
Intervene Design (Toronto)

To change the world you need good strategy. Jerrold breaks up personal and collective routines to make space for new approaches. He does this through systems design, strategy development, and program development. Jerrold also believes that culture is a collective resource we all draw upon to make sense of the world. Jerrold’s non-profit work connects creators working outside mainstream institutional cultural production with tools and resources to sustain and amplify their work. He is the senior advisor for programs at Artscape Daniels Launchpad, the founder at Intervene Design and the Board Chair at ukai Projects.

Tyreek Phillips, Creative Director
(Toronto)

Tyreek’s loves are football and art. Tyreek obtained a full athletic-scholarship from Furman University in rural Greenville, South Carolina. Sadly, during the spring of 2012 Ty was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy meaning he could no longer play football. Now Tyreek is a father, artist and creative director who uses his talents to express his pains and desires in hopes that his art will help others lift themselves out of their dark spaces too.

Michael Prosserman, CEO
EPIC Leadership xChange (Toronto)

Stephen Sawyer, Design Researcher 
Prescient Innovations / Access Copyright (Toronto)

Stephen Sawyer is a design researcher with Prescient Innovations, a creator-focused innovation lab exploring the future of rights management, created by Access Copyright. With over 10 years’ experience working as an Information Specialist, he is now focused on researching, speaking about and building apps using blockchain technology. He is passionate about creating digital solutions for creators and publishers while improving experiences for content consumers through human-centred design

Gregory Saumier-Finch, Co-Founder + CTO
Culture Creates (Montréal)

Gregory is an engineer with decades of experience building internet solutions. Over the years, he co-founded several tech startups in industries like retail, media, health, and most recently, the arts sector, with Culture Creates. This latest venture allows him to combine his love of the arts, his technological skills and his belief in the need to empower smaller organization with their own data, rather than seeing it exploited by internet giants. Gregory has worked directly with international partners to execute strategies across multiple channels and with numerous stakeholders. He has also led diverse R&D teams in building innovative solutions. With Culture Creates, Gregory is using the semantic web and artificial intelligence to bolster discoverability of performing arts.

Andrew Scholotiuk
Film Reel / The Film and Video Arts Society of Alberta (Edmonton)

Andrew Scholotiuk is an award winning Producer at Avatar Media, and has produced numerous feature films most recently 40 Below & Falling 3D (2015) starring Jewel Staite. His first feature, Baby Blues (2008) had the highest per-screen-average opening weekend in North American theatres.

His career in the arts began in theatre as a stage manager where he worked with large performing groups on international tours including China, Ukraine and the USA. With a background in Post-Production Management and 12 years as a Director of Photography with seven feature film credits, Andrew now works as a producer for Edmonton based Avatar Media, while also assisting the Film and Video Arts Society of Alberta heading up two projects: FAVATV and FilmReel, an online app that connect’s all media art centers across Canada.

Ana Serrano, Chief Digital Officer
Canadian Film Centre [CFC] (Toronto)

Ana Serrano is the Chief Digital Officer of the CFC and Founder of CFC Media Lab, the world-renowned and award-winning institute for interactive storytelling created in 1997.

In her capacity as CDO, Ana created the CFC’s digital roadmap which includes the design, development, and multi-stakeholder execution of the CFC’s digital communications and cloud-based operations infrastructure, and the digital strategy surrounding all of their program offerings.

To date, Ana has directed the development of over 130 digital media projects, mentored over 50 start-ups, and produced some of Canada’s seminal works in interactive media. She has received numerous awards from the digital media, film, and theatre industries in both Canada and the U.S.

Ana is an adjunct professor at OCADu, an Executive Member of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS), and frequently speaks at digital media and film festivals around the world about the creation and business of digital entertainment.

Giorgia Severini
Writers’ Guild of Alberta (Edmonton)

Giorgia has been with the Writers’ Guild of Alberta since 2008 and has spent the time gathering information and developing resources to best serve Alberta writers. She has a BA Honours in English from the University of Manitoba and an MA in Drama from the University of Alberta. Outside of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, she has been a theatre director for more than a decade and a playwright in recent years. Her first original play, Going Viral, was produced at the Edmonton Fringe Festival in 2010.

Anju Singh, Project Manager DiverseTheatreBC
Visceral Visions (Vancouver)

Anju (Singh) Christofferson is an arts administrator with a strong passion for technology, arts, and media. Anju is currently working as a Project Manager for DiverseTheatreBC – a project that is building a web platform to increase opportunities for marginalized artists in theatre, film and television. In addition to this, Anju is working as a technology consultant/project manager at 312 Main – a community/co-working space opening in 2019. In her spare time, Anju volunteers as co-curator of MAC (Media Arts Committee), and is an active musician and artist. Her background is rooted in a strong history of technical coordination and direction work at artist-run-centres and public institutions including VIVO Media Arts Centre, Vancouver Co-operative Radio, Langara College, and Simon Fraser University. Anju’s work is always strongly connected to the support of arts and activist work in the region.

Dr. Olivier St Cyr, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Faculty of Information – iSchool + Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto

Dr. Olivier St-Cyr is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in the Faculty of Information – iSchool and a Cross-Appointed Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. Prior to joining the university of Toronto, Dr. St-Cyr spent eight years working in industry on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) related projects in organizations such as the University Health Network (UHN), IBM Canada Limited, and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL). His research interests are in the areas of HCI, user interface/user experience design, and HCI education. Dr. St-Cyr received a BA in Computer Science and Psychology from York University (2000), a MASc in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo (2002), and a PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto (2006).

Maylee Todd
(Toronto)

Maylee’s skills and interests are in tech, mental health, future dreams, multi media, music production, 3-D projection mapping, interactive triggering, education, new concepts and all things inner and outer space. If she were to label herself, she’d call herself a psychonaut.

Margaret Vincent, VP, Governance + Legal
Stocksy United (Victoria / Chicago)

Margaret Vincent joined Stocksy United Co-op initially as a contributing photographer in 2013, before progressing from part-time legal help to Senior Counsel to her current role as VP of Governance and Legal. In addition to her legal role, she oversees Stocksy’s content teams, working closely with both clients and artists. Margaret has expertise in Alberta and British Columbia cooperative governance, content licensing, and copyright/trademark intellectual property. Margaret has a BA and a JD from the University of Michigan and has worked in a variety of legal fields including litigation and family law. She speaks regularly at co-op events and trainings and is a member of the Digital Media Licensing Association’s legal committee. And sometimes she still takes photos.

Zannie Giraud Voss, Director
SMU DataArts (Dallas, USA)

Zannie Giraud Voss, Ph.D. is Director of SMU DataArts, as well as Chair and Professor of Arts Management in the Meadows School of the Arts and the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. Prior to joining the SMU faculty, she was a professor at Duke University in Theatre Studies and the Fuqua School of Business. At Duke, she also served as producing director of Theater Previews, developing and co-producing over a dozen new plays and musicals, two of which transferred to Broadway. Before transitioning to academia, Zannie served as managing director of PlayMakers Repertory Company, associate manager of the Alley Theatre, and assistant director of Audience Development at the Mark Taper Forum. She has served as a consultant for the Irvine Foundation, Theatre Development Fund, Philadelphia Theatre Initiative/Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Theatre Communications Group, co-authoring Theatre Facts since 1998. She earned her doctorate at Aix-Marseille III Graduate School of Management, IAE, France, and currently serves on the American Academy of Arts and Science’s Commission on the Arts.

Neil Watson, Photographer

Neil is a photographer who divides his time between Miami and Toronto. His need to push limits on concept, framing and style development has led him to a thoughtfully curated body of work; with attention to light, detail and texture. Inspired by the idea of capturing moments, Neil began his work on film, and has since grown to include the digital space. His work is meant to instill self-awareness, and a sense of timelessness.

Daniel Webster
Greenland Productions (Montréal)

As a problem solver and strategist  Daniel Webster is driven to build equitable platforms that provide valuable services to artists, producers, and audiences.  A veteran of the arts and entertainment industry, Daniel has led projects in digital distribution, ticketing, and festival development (OSHEAGA,  ’77).  Dan was project lead on ELAN’s (English Language Arts Network, Quebec) research on Digital Solutions (2018), and is currently manager of the ELAN’s ARTS2U prototype development.  In 2019 Dan will lead a Canada Council/DSF funded project that develops connections and collaborations among digital initiatives.

Tim Whalley, Executive Director
Prologue to the Performing Arts (Toronto)

Tim Whalley serves in the role of Executive Director at Prologue to the Performing Arts, a not-for-profit arts education organization that brings performing arts experiences to schools and communities across Ontario. Prior to this role, Tim held the position of Executive Director of Scarborough Arts and subsequently as Associate Director of Government & Community Relations at Luminato Festival and then at Canadian Stage. The recipient of a 2014 Vital People grant from the Toronto Foundation, Tim Whalley was also selected as one of the Fellows for the inaugural Toronto Arts Council Cultural Leaders Lab program in 2015 and as a participant in the Global Cultural Leadership Programme through the EU Cultural Diplomacy Platform in 2016.

Michael Wheeler, Artistic Director + Co-Curator
SpiderWebShow Performance + foldA – Festival of live digital art (Kingston)

Michael Wheeler is Artistic Director of SpiderWebShow Performance, a digitally-engaged online theatre company that operates out of The Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in Kingston, Ontario, which serves as a venue and laboratory for SWS experiments, performances, and presentations. He is Co-Curator of  foldA (Festival of Live Digital Art), and holds teaching and research appointments at Queen’s University. Most recently he was Executive Director and Transformation Designer of arts incubator Generator. Michael holds a MFA from Harvard University.

Sagan Yee, Game Designer + Executive Director
Hand Eye Society (Toronto)

Sagan Yee is an experimental game designer. Her artistic practice includes animation, screen-based digital games, and alternative controller collaborations. She has participated in numerous panel discussions on animation and games, collaborated on several interactive projects at the intersections of technology and art, and organized workshops promoting digital media outreach and literacy. Currently Sagan is Executive Director of the Hand Eye Society, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to supporting videogames as a form of creative expression.

Helen Yung, Interdisciplinary Artist-Researcher
Culture of Cities Centre (Toronto)

Helen Yung is an artist-researcher with the Culture of Cities Centre, a board member with the Centre for Social Innovation, and a Salzburg Global Fellow. For over a decade, Helen has contributed to cultural policy thinking at the municipal, provincial, national, and international levels. She also makes installations, interactions, and interventions, and designs spaces, books, exhibitions, and performances. In her social practice with newcomers to Canada, Helen aims to transform conventional approaches to settlement, by leading with What Art Knows, looking at what art has to offer immigration. Blending performance, conceptual art, and social R&D, Helen’s work with immigrants and refugees has helped newcomers who have experienced ongoing difficulties breaking into the Canadian job market become successfully employed fulltime in their field of interest. More information at www.helenyung.com and www.creativedw.com.