Flora Shum | Artistic Director

flora@carfacontario.ca

Flora Shum is a Hong Kong born-Tkaronto/Toronto based artist, educator, and cultural worker. She co-directs Paperhouse Studio (c.2013), where she carries forward the vision for paper as a medium, and leads arts-based programming for underserved communities. She is one half of duo collective—AURA. Her artistic practice is experimental and collaborative by nature, with roots in papermaking, printmaking, and book arts, extending to found objects, sculpture, and installation. She has exhibited locally and internationally, including Toronto (ON), Whistler (BC), New York (NY), and Hong Kong.

She also has project management and facilitation experience of over 10 years, and has worked with many notable organizations such as Harbourfront Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto Public Library, Toronto Biennial of Art, Textile Museum, Central Technical School (Toronto, ON.), Peter Pitseolak School (Kinngait, NU.), Attagoyuk Ilisavik (Pangnirtung, NU.), and Mozilla Foundation with YWCA Toronto and Youth Empowering Parents.

Jason Samilski  |  Executive Director

jason@carfacontario.ca

Jason is a Toronto-based literary artist and musician His work has been published in print and online, and his radio dramas have been broadcasted in Canada and the U.S. Jason also served as a Creative Director of CUE, an award-winning Toronto-based arts initiative that, since 2008, has provided over $500,000 in high-access grants for new generation artists who experience social, cultural, and economic marginalization. As a co-developer of the initiative since its inception, Jason spearheaded CUE's many programs and projects including high-access project grants, employment, mentorship, curatorial and artistic creation residencies, discipline-specific development programs, creative enterprise support programs, and pop-up exhibitions. Jason was also responsible for developing, launching, and overseeing direction and operations of CUE's Margin of Eras Gallery, a 1300-square-foot multidisciplinary gallery and cultural space in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood that, between 2017-2020 produced over 70 exhibitions and events engaging and presenting the works of 360 artists.

Lisa Myers   |  Chair

Lisa Myers is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change and holds a York University Research Chair in Indigenous Art and Curatorial Practice. As a curator and artist with a keen interest in interdisciplinary collaboration, her research focuses on Contemporary Indigenous art considering the varied values and functions of elements such as medicine plants and language, sound, and knowledge. Through many media and materials including socially engaged art approaches, her art practice examines place, underrepresented histories/present/futures, and collective forms of knowledge exchange. Part of her curatorial practice includes advocacy for artists needs, in doing so she is passionate at navigating institutional barriers and limitations. Myers is a member of Beausoleil First Nation and is based in both Toronto and Port Severn, ON.

Rachel Butler   |   Secretary

Rachel is a former labour activist now arts organizer, with some additional precarious jobs in between. Now Rachel is a Project Manager and Studio Manager at Akin Collective. Rachel has helped orchestrate many of Akin’s community engagement and professional development events. She held the primary role in planning Akin Studio Program at MOCA Year Two 2019-2020 residency within the Museum of Contemporary Art here in Toronto, Akin St. Clair Don’t Meats Mural Project 2018, Akin’s community workshop residency at the Gardiner Museum called Place/Setting in 2016, and the Urban Workers Skillshare 2017. Rachel recently exhibited at Black Cat Showroom as part of Studio Mates group show.

Macy Siu   |   Treasurer

Macy Siu is an artist and foresight strategist who is driven by expression and empowerment tied to the hyphen of in-between spaces. Her current practice focuses on creating evidence-based experiential futures and design fiction towards driving conversations around possible inclusive futures. Macy has a background in fine arts (photography and video art) with editorial and public relations experience in the art museum sector (The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Solomon Guggenheim Museum New York). She is also a licensed lawyer in Ontario, specializing in intellectual property law. 

Sheila Sampath  |   Director

Sheila Sampath is an artist, activist designer, facilitator and educator. She is the principal and creative director at The Public, a social justice design studio specializing in co-creation for community self-determination, the editorial and art director of Shameless magazine, a feminist voice for teens of marginalized genders, and a professor in the Bachelor of Digital Communications Program at Humber. 

Sheila has chaired the board at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multi-Cultural Women against rape, and is a former member of the SAVAC board of directors. She is on the program advisory committee for the Assaulted Women and Children’s Counselling and Advocacy program at George Brown College, a Sketch NextUp! Mentor, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Artists. She has lectured internationally on community-centred creative praxis, alternative media, and anti-oppressive work. 

In 2020, she was named a YWCA Toronto Woman of Distinction for her work transforming the lives of women and girls through the arts. 

Amirah Arif   |   Director

Ashley is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and educator residing in Tkaronto/Toronto, Ontario. Informed by biology, scientific research and socio-cultural dynamics, Snook explores the complexities of diverse living networks and the concept of animality through drawing, installation, and sculpture. Snook has shown her work nationally, including her most recent solo exhibition NODES: Animality and Kinship at McIntosh Gallery (London, ON) in 2022. She has also shown work in the 2022 exhibition GardenShip and State at Museum London (London, ON), and Come Up To My Room at the Gladstone Hotel in 2018 (Toronto, ON). Snook has received numerous awards within her academic life, including most recently a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Snook holds a PhD in Art and Visual Culture from Western University (London, ON, 2023) and a MFA from the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design program at OCAD University (Toronto, ON, 2016).

CARFAC Ontario is one of several regional affiliates which includes CARFAC BC, CARFAC Alberta, CARFAC Saskatchewan, CARFAC Manitoba, CARFAC Maritimes, and VANL/CARFAC.

Each organization operates distinctly with its own board of directors, staff, and offices, but work to advance the visual and media arts as a cohesive voice for artists in our own regions, and on the national level.   

In Quebec, CARFAC National has formed a partnership alliance with Le Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Québec (RAAV) at the national level, due to their mutual federal certification under the Status of the Artist Act. CARFAC National and RAAV work on joint initiatives at the national level towards the promotion of the social, moral, and economic rights and interests of professional visual artists in Canada and Quebec. RAAV members also receive automatic membership in CARFAC National.

CARFAC National

www.carfac.ca
membership@carfac.ca

Regional Affiliates

CARFAC BC

CARFAC Alberta 

CARFAC Saskatchewan 

CARFAC Manitoba 

CARFAC Maritimes
(Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island)

VANL/CARFAC
(Visual Arts Newfoundland and Labrador) 

RAAV
Le Regroupment des artistes en arts visuels du Québec