Board

Natalie Lue

Director, Vancouver Civic Theatre (BC)

Natalie Lue is the Director of the Vancouver Civic Theatres (the Orpheum, a 2,672 seat historic concert hall, Canada’s largest stage, the 2,765 seat Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the 668 seat Vancouver Playhouse, and the flexible 191 seat black box Annex Theatre) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  Until June 2019, she was the CEO of the Living Arts Centre (LAC), a multi-arts presentation centre in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Prior to the LAC, Natalie was the Vice President, Production and Visitor Experience for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) responsible for producing twelve of the annual September Festival.  She was also on the build team responsible for the construction, opening and operating of TIFF Bell Lightbox.  Prior to joining TIFF in 2005, Natalie held several senior positions at Harbourfront Centre, a ten acre performing arts complex in Toronto on the shores of Lake Ontario.

Gillian Reid

Event/Tour Producer, FeLIX Productions (NS)

Gillian brings over a decade of project management and special events production experience to her role as an Agent/Manager/Tour Producer. Wearing different hats for different clients on a variety of projects, she aims to support her artist clients in their quest to connect with audiences. She is located in Chester, NS.

Gillian’s professional background includes over a decade with a corporate performance marketing firm in Toronto where she designed and produced incentive programs for GM Canada, VW Canada, and BP Oil among others. Gillian also garnered experience as a production assistant with ShoCorp International on projects like The Cancun Jazz Festival, Volkswagen Trade Show and the EuroVan Launch. Gillian has a degree in Administrative and Commercial Studies from the University of Western Ontario.

She currently sits on both the CAPACOA International Market Development committee, and the Agents and Managers COVID committee. She was a board member of the Chester Playhouse from 2006-2012 and was Vice Commodore of the Chester Yacht Club from 2014 to 2015.

Nicholas Beach

General Manager, Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre (AB)

Nicholas Beach has been General Manager of the Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre for over 8 years. Responsibilities include curating the arts centre’s multi-disciplinary season of 35+ artists in 5 different series each year. The Lougheed Centre presents Canadian and international artists including theatre, dance, circus, and a large variety of music genres. In more than 20 year career in the arts, he has worked in theatres in 4 provinces which also included the National Arts Centre, E. A. Rawlinson Centre for the Arts and Keyano Theatre.  Past related experience includes, member at large for the Arts Touring Alliance of Alberta, co-leader of the Canadian working group for contemporary circus with MICC and founding member of the Camrose Arts Council.  Nicholas is also a very active member of the Prairie Regional Presenters Coalition.

The Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre opened in 2014 and is located on the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus in Camrose, Alberta. The Lougheed Centre is home to a 584 seat fly house and a 124 seat cabaret venue.

Pam Patel

Artistic Director, MT Space / IMPACT Festival (ON)

Pam Patel performs with numerous Canadian companies, touring nationally and internationally. A graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University’s music program, Pam specialized in new music and improvisation, establishing a career as a multidisciplinary artist.

Pam is currently the Artistic Director of MT Space where she pursues her passion for centralizing racialized voices through theatre. Pam was formerly the President of local new music organization, NUMUS, and is currently the Chair of Arts Awards Waterloo Region. In line with efforts to advocate for the arts on a local level, Pam also sat on the Arts and Culture Advisory Committee for the City of Kitchener where she played an active role in voicing concerns on behalf of the larger arts community. In 2018, Pam was a recipient of Rotary International’s Paul Harris Fellowship for Service Above Self in Arts and Culture, which was given at the Mayor of Waterloo’s State of the City Address. Most recently, Pam received the Emerging Leader in Performing Arts Award from CAPACOA, and is a recipient of Zonta’s 2021 Women of Achievement Award.

Yaëlle Azoulay

Dance Department Director, Agence Résonances (QC)

Yaëlle has been involved in the dance world for over 20 years. She is a dancer/choreographer in contemporary gigue and teaches in various contexts around the world. In addition, she has used her background in communications, history, and cultural practices and interventions to propel herself into a career in dance management. After 6 years with [ZØGMA] dance company as a co-administrator and later a booking agent, Yaëlle quickly developed a passion for the latter and decided to represent artists locally and internationally. Since 2018, she is director of the Dance department at Résonances Agency, being in charge of the development and booking activities of ten Quebecois dance companies. Her human approach, her passion for dance, and her deep regard for initiatives that involve social action are but a few of the many strengths that contribute to Yaëlle’s success in the dance world.

Evelyn Bradley

Community Impact and Diversity Manager, The United Way (PEI)
Owner/Lead Consultant, Bradley Consulting

Evelyn R. Bradley (she/her) is the Community Impact and Diversity manager at The United Way of PEI and the owner and lead consultant of the diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting company Bradley Consulting. As a diversity and inclusion consultant, Evelyn provides workshop development, training, and facilitation services through her work with The Dandelion Initiative, HEIST, and The Confederation Center of the Arts. Evelyn believes that in order to create accountable artistic spaces we must expand our knowledge of our own biases and unpack our socialization as the first steps to fostering inclusive artistic spaces.

Angela Campbell

Executive Director, Imperial Theatre (NB)

Angela has over 18 years of experience in arts administration and professional fund development including coordination of large-scale events, donor development, organizational management, marketing & communications, human resources, artistic programming and curation, audience development, board governance, strategic planning and financial management.

Angela is the Executive Director of Imperial Theatre, one of Atlantic Canada’s largest and most active Performing Arts Centres.  Her leadership style is rooted in creating a creative and collaborative and equitable work culture to build a strong organization. She has worked to expand the Theatre’s networks locally, nationally and internationally, affirming Imperial Theatre’s role as a leader in performing arts with a mission to create a space dedicated to diversity, inclusivity and equity, while fulfilling a commitment to support artists and connect them and their work with audiences. Angela has served on multiple local and regional boards and committees and spent 10-years on the Board of the Atlantic Presenters Association.

Photo: Emily Cooper Photography

Ivan Coyote

Writer and Performer

Ivan Coyote is a writer and storyteller. Born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, they are the author of thirteen books, the creator of four films, six stage shows, and three albums that combine storytelling with music. Coyote’s books have won the ReLit Award, been named a Stonewall Honour Book, been longlisted for Canada Reads, and been shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Prize for non-fiction and the Governor General's award for non-fiction twice. In 2017 Ivan was given an honorary Doctor of Laws from Simon Fraser University. They have toured public schools solo around the world for 19 years now, using the power of a personal story to fight bullying and make schools safer for students, staff and parents. In 2022 Ivan will mark 28 years on the road as an international touring storyteller and musician. Coyote’s stories grapple with the complex and intensely personal topics of gender identity, family, class, and queer liberation, but always with a generous heart, and a quick wit. Ivan's stories manage to handle both the hilarious and the historical with reverence and compassion, and remind us all of our own fallible and imperfect humanity, while at the same time inspiring us to change the world. Ivan's 13th book, Care Of, was released in June 2021 by McClelland and Stewart.

Umair Jaffar

Executive Director, Small World Music (ON)

Umair Jaffar is the Executive Director of Small World Music, one of Toronto’s pioneering and most significant presenters of culturally-diverse music. Since arriving in Toronto in 2014, he has worked in curatorial and management roles at major cultural institutions including the Aga Khan Museum and Harbourfront Centre. Prior to immigrating, he was the CEO & Artistic Director for IPAC (Institute for Preservation of Art and Culture), a Pakistan-based non-profit social enterprise that focused on developing sustainable solutions for preserving and promoting indigenous and traditional performing arts. Umair also serves as a board member for several non-profit art organizations including North York Arts and Musiconnect Asia. He has an MBA from University of Adelaide, Australia and a MSc in Cultural Anthropology from University of Oxford, UK.

Kennedy Jenson

Executive Director, Arts Touring Alliance of Alberta (AB)

Kennedy Jenson, Executive Director for the Arts Touring Alliance of Alberta, has a background not only in arts association management and concert/festival production, but many years’ experience as a performer and recording artist. Her performance career covers just about every medium of the entertainment business, from stage to studio, radio to television host, to singer and dancer.

Since 2005 Kennedy has been working on the other side of the industry passing her knowledge onto budding performers and community arts councils through her work for arts organizations and festival production. In her seven years as Executive Director for the Alberta Music Industry Association, Kennedy was instrumental in establishing that organization as a go-to destination for professional music biz guidance. Jenson brings that same passion and hard work to the Arts Touring Alliance of Alberta dedicated to providing relevant programs and services and strengthening infrastructure.

Kennedy’s work as a volunteer in the arts and cultural sector has spanned as many years as her professional work. Currently she chairs a music historical society in Edmonton whose mandate is to document the entire music history of Edmonton going back to 1892. A partnership with the Edmonton Public library has resulted in a website specifically designed to house hundreds of profiles not only of artists, but venues, festivals, and industry workers.

Cynthia Lickers-Sage

Executive Director, Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance (ON)

Cynthia Lickers-Sage is from the Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan visual artist from Six Nations. Following her graduation at the Ontario College of Art and Design she Co-Founded The Centre for Aboriginal Media, imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival and is the sole proprietor of Clickers Productions. She has spent the last two decades working in the not-for-profit arts sector as the former Executive Director at the Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts and the General Manager at Kaha:wi Dance Theatre where she gained valuable skills to take on her current position as the Executive Director at the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance.

Cynthia has worked within the governmental sector at the Ontario Arts Council (Acting Aboriginal Arts Officer & Community and Multidisciplinary Arts Officer) and the Canada Council for the Arts (Flying Eagle Coordinator). She currently also serves on the board of directors for Ontario Presents and has served on a variety of volunteer boards and arts service organizations, including Dance Ontario, Aboriginal Education Council at OCAD, Planet IndigenUS Advisory Committee , Cultural Human Resources Council of Canada, National Aboriginal Network for Arts Administration, Kakawekwewin (Aboriginal advisory committee to the Canada Council for the Arts), Toronto Arts Council, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, 2013/2014 Dora Mavor Moore Dance jury member, Cultural Careers Council of Ontario and is the proud recipient of the Toronto Aboriginal Business Association’s – Aboriginal Business Women and the Year award.

Vincent Messager

Touring Agent, Dolce Vita Spectacles (QC)

Vincent Messager has been working in the field of arts performance touring and marketing for the last 28 years in circus touring, music and contemporary dance. He has collaborated with Cirque Éloize (Canada) for more than 12 years on international tour development and was for 8 years director of the Special Events department where he produced more that 700 performances throughout the world. He created Dolce Vita Spectacles in 2007 to respond to a need of lack of independant touring agents for smaller Quebec circus companies. Further than his experience as a circus touring agent, he has been teaching “career management” to the graduates of the Montreal National Circus School since 2013. He is regularly invited to give workshops in international development and arts marketing for many artists associations in Canada and abroad to organisations as En Piste (Canada), CINARS, ACT (France) and Circo Connection (Hungary). Vincent is also member of the board of En Piste, the national association of circus arts in Canada.

Jim Smith

DanceHouse / Vancouver New Music and Eponymous (BC)

Following studies in music and then commerce, Jim worked in tourism for the Government of Ontario. In 1990 he moved to Montreal and began working in the professional Canadian arts sector at La La La Human Steps. After a move to Vancouver, Jim co-founded Eponymous, an arts management and production agency.

Under the aegis of Eponymous, Jim is currently the Producer for Company 605, Compagnie Vision Selective, Kidd Pivot, Les Productions Figlio, and Wen Wei Dance, and the Managing Producer of Vancouver New Music. He also represents Crystal Pite and Wen Wei Wang. In 2007 Jim co-founded DanceHouse, a subscription series of large-scale dance presentations at the Vancouver Playhouse. Jim is a past President of the Canadian Dance Assembly, a founding member of Made In BC, and has sat on a number of other not for profit boards of directors.

Andrea Vincent

Creative Director, Sappyfest (NB)

Andrea Vincent is a professional artistic director and arts administrator with significant experience in artist relations and DIY events. Andrea’s career began in the early 2000s as a teen with a festival travel enterprise, and in 2011 following a formal education in Interdisciplinary Art, Andrea co-founded Lawnya Vawnya, an independent music festival in St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador with a group of friends. Since 2016, Andrea has served as the Executive Director of the Dawson City Music Festival Association in Dawson City, Yukon. In early 2022, Andrea headed home to the east coast to join Sappyfest as their new Creative Director.