Core Team
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Ted Strauss Executive Director
Ted Strauss is a filmmaker, artist, techie, singer, project manager, cook, and prolific worrier.
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Marissa Blair Marketing Manager
Marissa is a performance artist and theatre-maker originally from New York City who attended The New School for a bachelor’s, and received her MA in Performance Studies from NYU. She is the Artistic Director and founder of Mad Paradox, runs Espace Freestanding Room, and organizes Freefalling Monthly.
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Willow Loveday Little Operations Manager
Willow is a writer, poet, teacher, and freelance editor whose work has appeared in places like The Dalhousie Review, On Spec, The Selkie’s anthology Very Much Alive: Stories of Resilience, and yolk literary. She is the author of Xenia (Cactus Press, 2021).
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Toby Moore Membership & Events Coordinator
Toby brings a compassionate and open approach to all his endeavours. Most recently, online organization T1K Media, which brings people together during the pandemic in a sustainable and future-oriented mindset.
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Rachel Wallace Research & Policy Development
Rachel is a researcher, analyst, and most of all an “ideas person.” With a background in fields including philosophy, policy, dance, and publishing, Rachel approaches projects with creativity and care.
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Claire Gerin-Lajoie Learning Experience Designer
Claire is a learning experience designer who uses illustration, vibrant presentations, and group facilitation to help organisations nurture their creative culture and get their message across.
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Laurence Gagné Operations Manager
Laurence is a writer and a literary director. She publishes poetry and participates in public readings. She works as operations manager at Sur Place.
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Amy Macdonald Project Manager
Amy Macdonald is a project manager and consultant who works with creative teams to find clarity, communicate effectively, and do their best work. Amy’s approach is rooted in wide-ranging experience, including managing organizational change initiatives as Program Manager with ELAN Quebec, and her practice as a musician.
Teachers, Collaborators, Creators and Members
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Bronwen Moen Art Director, Facilitator, Embodied Practices, Performer, Photographer
With a foundation of painting and murals Bronwen’s work also extends into photography, design/illustration, large-scale puppets, and sets and props within tv/film and theatre productions. This multi-disciplinary practice also extends into teaching and facilitation and is woven together with themes of embodiment, agency and connection.
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Pascal Huỳnh Workshop Leader, Animator, Art Director
Pascal is an animator, podcast producer, workshop leader, youth facilitator, and multi-disciplinary artist extraordinaire.
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Simon Kessler Filmmaker, Cinematographer
Simon is a filmmaker based in Paris who has directed and developed documentaries for network television, including the National Geographic and Planète+ channels. In addition to his television work, Simon has directed a number of self-produced short documentaries. His personal practice privileges intimates portraits of peoples, places and institutions in interstitial moment.
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Solomon Krause-Imlach Composer, Producer, Sound Designer
Solomon creates innovative music and sound for video, film, podcasts, games, apps, and ads, and produces songs across many genres for both local and international artists. He’s an Ableton Live expert with over ten years of experience.
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Wiebke von Carolsfeld Writer, Filmmaker
Wiebke is an award-winning writer and filmmaker, who has directed three critically acclaimed theatrical feature films (Marion Bridge, STAY, The Saver), Her films have played at festivals around the world (TIFF, Rotterdam (competition), Karlovy Vary, Sydney, Pusan etc), winning many awards including Best First Feature at TIFF. Claremont, her first novel, was published to much acclaim in the fall of 2019. The German edition, by Kiepenheuer&Witsch, is forthcoming.
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Liza Isakov Artist
Liza is an artist who specializes in paper creations. Liza’s art has been exhibited around Winnipeg and Montreal, both in solo showcases and group vernissages.
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Anna Weksej Graphic Designer
Anna is a graphic designer, illustrator and researcher. She teaches the graphic design workshop at Sur Place.
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Damaris Baker Videographer, Producer, Musician
Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Damaris is a filmmaker, animator, radio producer, musician, and choir leader. Damaris also does healing practices with voices, resonating bowls, and the body.
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Jeannette Lambert Photographer, Vocalist, Sound Engineer
Jeannette is a multi-media artist and vocalist who works with photography, video, and music. She studied film at York University and runs the independent music label Jazz from Rant.
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Dae Courtney Sound Designer, Facilitator, Producer, Builder
A wild-life skills and arts educator. Produces, designer and technically supports Dance, Film & Podcast. Loves to build community and create impact!
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Natasha Sher Photographer, Videographer
Natasha is a hard-working photographer ready for a wide range of shooting scenarios. She is also developing a documentary on the culinary history of Bangladesh.
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Su J. Sokol Writer, Editor
Su is a writer of speculative and interstitial fiction. She is the author of Cycling to Asylum, which was long-listed for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic and optioned for a film, and Run J Run, published in 2019 by Renaissance Press.
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Hannah Materne Graphic Designer, Object Designer, Art Director
Hannah does graphic design and illustration work in the areas of branding + logo, booklet, packaging, information design, textile design and art direction. Hannah see a future where the human environment is closer to the joy, peace and whimsy of the natural world.
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Denise Leitao Writer
Denise writes YA sci-fi and fantasy under Day Leitao and has published three independent novels, two novellas, and three audiobooks. She also knows a lot about making book covers, websites, and indie publishing and marketing.
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Elian Mikkola Filmmaker, Editor
Elian is a queer filmmaker, editor, and installation artist. Their work focuses on metaphoric queer and trans narratives through film and expanded cinema. Elian holds an MFA in Media Production from the University of Regina and a BA in Journalism from Tampere University. Their work has screened in several film festivals including International Film Festival Rotterdam, TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma and WNDX.
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Austin Henderson Artist
Austin is an artist and writer who has studied internationally at UNSW Art & Design and the New York Academy of Art and participates in exhibitions across Canada and the US. He is currently pursuing his MA in Art History at Concordia University.