About

Born in Vancouver, he studied at the Vancouver School of Art; he was a curator and gallery director for over thirty-five years producing many exhibitions and publications on visual art, architecture and design. He is particularly interested in the intersection between these disciplines. He was the commissioner and co-curator of the Canadian Pavilion at the 2006 Venice Biennale of Architecture. From 1988 until 2013 he was the Director/Curator of the Charles H. Scott Gallery at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. He is the Curator Emeritus of the University. Since leaving the University he has worked on independent writing and curating projects. In 2014 he edited the book, “The West Coast Modern House: Vancouver Residential Architecture”, published by Figure 1 Publishing. In 2019 he produced the book “Eppich House II: the Story of an Arthur Erickson Masterwork”, published by Figure 1 Publishing. Also in 2019 he contributed to “Designed for Living”, a publication featuring case studies of renovations to modernist houses in Vancouver, produced by the West Vancouver Museum.

Godfre Leung is a curator and critic based in the territory currently known as Vancouver. Recent programming includes granted to a foreign citizen (Artspeak, 2020), a book of poetry by Sun Yung Shin commissioned as part of his 2020–2021 curatorial series unstately; Pao Houa Her: Emplotment (Or Gallery, 2020); Samson Young: It’s a heaven over there (2019); and Barbara Held and Benton C Bainbridge: Pausa (KiehleGallery, 2017). From 2013 to 2015, he worked as a curatorial consultant on the Walker Art Center exhibition International Pop, which traveled to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Dallas Museum of Art. His work has been supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, BC Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and Jerome Foundation. His writing has been commissioned for publications by MoMA, the Walker, and other institutions, and has appeared in magazines such as ArtAsiaPacific and Art in America. Prior to remigrating to Vancouver, he was associate professor of art history at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.

(image credit: painting by Justin Teodoro, 2005)

Elham Puriya Mehr is an artist, curator, and lecturer based in Vancouver on the territories of the xwməθkwəýəm (Musqueam), Skwxw.7mesh (Squamish) and səlili> lw̓ ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations. She received her BA and MA from the Tehran University of Art, and her Ph.D. in Art Research (Cultural Discourse of Curating in Contemporary Art of Iran) from Alzahra University in Tehran. Her researches focus on curatorial knowledge in social contexts, non-Western curatorial methodologies, and public engagement.

She investigates innovative methods to involve publics in art projects and exhibitions, so the publics reactions and behaviors on one hand and roles/responsibility of art institutions and art professionals on the other hand develop her practices. She has worked as a university teacher, curator and writer over the past fifteen years in West Asia and Europe, and lectured in international conferences, symposiums and talks in Tehran, Singapore, Amsterdam, Vienna, and Vancouver.

She is a co-founder of “Empty Space Studio,” a nonprofit nomadic platform based in Tehran and Vancouver and currently she is a research associate in “freethought collective,” Goldsmiths University in London for a year.

Makiko Hara is an independent curator, lecturer, researcher, writer and “art incubator” born in Tokyo, Japan, and lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. Hara was the chief curator and temporary the deputy director at Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, from 2007 – 2013. Since 2014 when Hara had served the guest curator for “Koganecho Bazaar-Fictive Community Asia” (Yokohama Japan), her curatorial practice has shifted for creating platforms for dialogue and exchange through numerous art forms and projects across the Pacific Ocean and beyond. In 2019, Hara co-founded a curatorial initiative “Pacific Crossings” with three other curators and directors based in British Columbia, Canada and have organized several research residency, lecture and forum with partner organizations globally in Tokyo, Manila, Hong Kong among the others. Hara is working on an ongoing, long-term research project “Kitchen Talks: Women Aging and Art Making” examning the transformation of women artists’ art practices as they age with wisdom. This research has led her several recent projects including: “Being My Mother”, her own performance at Through The Trap Door, curated by Paul Wong, Vancouver, 2014, and curated two female artists “Before the 37 Trillion Pieces Get to Sleep” Performance by Tari Ito, LIVE International Performance Art Biennale, Vancouver, 2019, and “Unlikeness” exhibition by Elizabeth MacKenize, Teck Gallery, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, 2020.

Hara is the direction advisor of International Exchange Centre at Akita University of Art (2017-2020), and currently in charge of their participation to the October School since 2018. During the COVID 19 Pandemic in 2020, Hara opened “My Kitchen Anthropology Museum” in her own apartment kitchen and appointed as CEO and Executive Director of the museum. 

makikoharaprojects@gmail.com

Reference links:

https://www.pacificcrossings.ca/previous/

https://vandocument.com/2014/12/thru-the-trapdoor/

http://livebiennale.ca/2019/tari-ito/

http://www.sfu.ca/galleries/teck-gallery/Unlikeness.html

Based in Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish territories. A Filipino-Canadian woman, feminist, and community organizer, as well as a worker in the not-for-profit sector. A fundraiser at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and an arts administrator/grant writer for artists and arts organizations.

As the Senior Associate Director, Advancement at SFU, Christina works closely with the faculty members and the dean to build support for the Faculty of Health Sciences and engage our community of alumni and donors. She joined the faculty in January 2019.

Christina has 17 years of fundraising experience from her time working with health-related, arts and culture and post secondary organizations such as the BC Cancer Foundation, Alzheimer Society of BC, BCIT and UBC. She brings a passion for progressive and health equity issues, and was recognized in 2011 by the City of Vancouver as one of twelve “Remarkable Women, Community Builders” for her volunteer leadership with the Philippine Women Centre of BC.

Before joining the Faculty of Health Sciences, Christina was part of the development and alumni engagement team at the Allard School of Law, UBC, supporting the Dean and Assistant Dean in the management of key major gift portfolios including a $2M gift for innovation. She organized regional development trips and maintained key relationships with experiential learning programs such as the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic, and assisted in the creation of numerous awards including a $200K award for indigenous students. She is particularly adept at navigating complexity within a university environment to ensure the highest levels of stewardship among donors, faculty and colleagues. 

Christina is currently working on completing her EMBA at the SFU Beedie School of Business.