Sedina Fiati is a Toronto-based performer, producer, director, creator and activist for stage and screen with over 15 years of experience. Proudly Black and queer, Sedina is deeply invested in artistic work that explores the intersection between art and activism, either in form or structure or ideally both. Sedina holds a BFA in Music Theatre from the University of Windsor and is also a graduate of Etobicoke School of the Arts. Sedina worked with Generator for 3 years, focusing on providing mentorship, program development and coordination for the Artist Producer Training Program. Sedina is currently an Artist-Activist in Residence at Nightwood Theatre and a proud founding member of the Black Pledge Collective. Recent theatre and performance projects: Switch Collective (collective member – upcoming project at SummerWorks 2022 and performances at Buddies In Bad Times (2018 & 2019), Children’s Peace Theatre (director – 2019, 2020, 2021) Every Day She Rose (co-director, Nightwood Theatre), Feminist Fuck It Festival (co-creator and producer, multidisciplinary festival).
Arthur Yeung is a producer who specializes in immersive, mobile, and game experiences. He uses his program management skills and wide network in the arts and entertainment sector to develop and produce original properties, branded and immersive content for DimensionGate (which became a viral sensation after uploading its Virtual Reality videos to YouTube). Arthur was formerly Chief Operating Officer & Producer at Albedo Informatics, an Augmented Reality studio working on a geo-location-based mobile game and an Augmented Reality content creation platform/app called LARGE, which powered a multi-year partnership with arts, cultural and civic organizations across Canada with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts; and Programs Manager at CFC Media Lab – the unique production think-tank, training institute and accelerator for emerging interactive and digital creators and entertainment technology start-ups.
His range of professional experience has also included: event production and programming, film festivals (Toronto International Film Festival, Reel Asian), PR & marketing (Twentieth Century Fox, National Film Board of Canada, lifestyle agencies) and podcast co-host/producer. His electronic soundtrack work and multi-disciplinary installation performances have taken him across North America and Asia. Distinctions include an Istvan Anhalt Electroacoustics award for composition and a Reelworld Film Festival Trailblazer Award.
Claude Schryer is a Franco-Ontarian sound and media artist, arts administrator, facilitator, podcaster and cultural worker. From 1980 to 2000, he studied composition, interdisciplinary work, environmental art, acoustic ecology at Montreal’s McGill University. He was Manager of the Inter-Arts Office and Senior Strategic Advisor at Canada Council for the Arts from 2000 to 2020.
As of 2021, he is the producer of the bilingual conscient podcast (about arts and the ecological crisis). He is the co-founder and member of the Coordination Circle of the Sectoral Climate Art Leadership for the Emergency (SCALE). Claude is also a soundscape composer, meeting facilitator, strategic advisor, zen and chi gong practitioner, runner, husband of Sabrina, and father of Clara and Riel.
Founder and community consultant, Parul Pandya has been skillfully working in non-profit in various roles through the past decade, including as a community builder, consultant, programmer and producer. After managing in community granting for the largest government funder in Canada, she received much interest for continued collective impact by being asked to serve organizations in a variety of capacities.
Her attraction to advocacy emerged with her work as a Queer South Asian freelance writer/poet over two decades ago. She has a deep passion for ethics and social justice, which she teaches at Centennial College.
Her approach to exchange is a high-engagement approach, encouraging participation through self-reflection, empathy, creativity and common understanding. Parul has a deep appreciation for plants, playing plant mom to over 80 in her urban jungle. She also loves watching the Toronto Raptors and Toronto Blue Jays, as well as a lot of true crime.
Shonee (born Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes) is a Canadian-Costa Rican digital media artist based in Montreal. She holds a BFA in Film Animation from Concordia University. Shonee uses the immersive potential of video and speculative fiction to create artificial life environments. In the virtual worlds she creates, surreal creatures embody humankind’s objective and narrow misunderstanding of the lives of plants and animals in this time of ecological crisis.
Mary Krohnert is the Founder and Executive Director of LivingRoom Community Art Studio. She is also an actor, art therapist and social arts practitioner with a passion for intersectional community engagement through the arts. Currently based out of Durham Region, Ontario, Canada, she is a graduate of Ryerson University and The Toronto Art Therapy Institute, and has studied Community Art Studios, Methods & Materials at Concordia University under Dr. Janis Timm-Bottos. This program was instrumental in helping Mary envision and initiate the LivingRoom project, as was a childhood shaped by community-based arts and culture experiences in the homes of friends and neighbours. The LivingRoom project emerged out of a desire to explore and inhabit the areas between her various professional pursuits, in an effort to live, learn, work and self-care with greater honesty, responsiveness, sustainability and joy. The LivingRoom and its related projects offer practical opportunities for citizen artists of all ages, abilities and walks of life to explore how creative processes in communication, mental health care and social activism can be integrated into day-to-day life for the benefit of all.
Aljumaine Gayle is a queer artist and creative technologist working at the intersections of tech, art, design, and data justice. Their artistic practise explores and subverts the othering of blackness in contemporary life using Afrofuturism. Currently a 4th-year student in OCAD University’s Digital Futures program and a researcher with the University of Toronto’s Technoscience Research Unit.
Mona Afshari is an arts and culture marketing and communications specialist. Over the last fifteen years, Mona has worked for arts organizations in Ontario, Quebec, and the Northwest Territories, developing and implementing business and marketing plans, as well as educational programs for diverse audiences. With a Bachelor’s in Visual Arts, a Master’s in Art Education, and Graduate Diploma in Management, Mona is determined to bridge the gap between the arts and business through her marketing efforts. As the Marketing & Communications Manager at WorkInCulture she supports the professional lives of artists and cultural workers by promoting business skills and career development resources. Mona is also the producer and host of WorkInCulture’s Success Stories podcast covering employer and cultural worker perspectives on securing employment in the arts.
Diane Davy serves as the part-time Executive Director of WorkInCulture (WIC), a not-for-profit arts service organization that supports the professional lives of artists, creative and cultural workers and the organizations that support and engage them. WIC creates and delivers training programs, connects the community through its robust website, www.workinculture.ca and curates research and other career resources.
Diane is also the President of Castledale, a consulting company specializing in the business of the cultural sector. Her areas of expertise include strategic business planning, corporate structure and management, marketing strategies, revenue generation, board governance, project management and other related topics.