The Power Plant

Considering a career in the arts? The Power Plant presents a virtual forum for post-secondary students and emerging art professionals. Students will hear fast-paced presentations by artists, curators, museum workers, and other creatives in the visual arts. Each will offer insights into their day-to-day responsibilities, offer tips for navigating the art milieu, and share practical information for those who want to explore artistic career paths. After the series of short presentations, the panel of professionals will respond to students’ questions. In partnership with Alpha Arts at the University of Toronto, and Art and Art History, a joint HBA program between Sheridan College and the University of Toronto Mississauga.

With short presentations by:

Daniel Faria (Galerist, Daniel Faria Gallery)
Daniel Faria received a B.F.A from the University of Waterloo in 1999 and an M.A. in Art History from York University in 2003. He has worked at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, interned at Mercer Union before going on to become director of Monte Clark Gallery Toronto for several years. In October 2011, Daniel Faria opened his eponymous gallery. Artists Faria represents include: Shannon Bool, Douglas Coupland, Iris Häussler, Mark Lewis, Kristine Moran and Derek Liddington.

Corrie Jackson (Senior Curator, RBC)
Corrie Jackson is a Curator based in Toronto, Canada. She is currently the RBC Senior Curator, overseeing the management and strategy of the RBC Corporate Art Collection. Previ­ously she worked at the University of Toronto Art Museum, Sotheby’s Canada, commercial galleries, and as an independent curator. She finished her Masters in Visual Studies, Curatorial Practice at the University of Toronto with a focus on contemporary Canadian artists. Her curatorial interests focus on cross-generational dialogues and developing the role of collections as accountable and inclusive narratives.

Jennifer Simaitis (Special Events Manager, Casey House)
Jennifer Simaitis combines her strong ties with the arts community and passion for social justice in her current role as Manager, Special Events at Casey House Foundation, where she leads fundraising events in support of judgment-free care at Ontario’s HIV/AIDS hospital. Simaitis studied Art Criticism and Curatorial Practice at OCAD University; Fine Art at NSCAD University, where she launched Seeds Gallery, a pedagogical commercial venue for students and alumni; and attended Fanshawe College, where she is a volunteer member of the Fine Art Program Advisory Committee. She has held positions at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery and MKG 127.

Jessa Agilo (Founder and President, ArtsPond)
Jessa Agilo is an integrated arts producer, educator, and social entrepreneur with a three-decade career boosting social, spatial, economic, digital, and accessibility justice for equity-seeking groups across all disciplines in Canadian arts and culture. She is currently the founder of ArtsPond, where she has led ground-breaking efforts to address gentrification (Groundstory), digital transformation of arts services (DigitalASO), COVID-19 response (I Lost My Gig Canada), open source arts management software (Hatch Open), platform cooperatives (Artse United), and creative land trusts (Groundtrust). She was recognized with the Humberto Santos Award in Business and Administration in 2006 and Toronto Arts Council’s Leaders Lab in 2019. Upcoming publications include "What Space: Spatial precarity, gentrification, and the arts" and "Research Insights: Designing a cooperative digital future for managing the arts".

Sarah Davidson (Artist, The RBC Emerging Artist Network)
Sarah Davidson (b. 1989, Ottawa) has made a living guiding expeditions for an outdoor school for the past ten years, and while she often draws directly from her surroundings, she has become increasingly aware that drawing from observation is a fraught gesture. In her art, she aims to ask the question: who is seeing who, and how? Davidson has exhibited across Canada at venues including Cassandra Cassandra , Erin Stump Projects, Unit 17, The Power Plant, Little Sister, Birch Contemporary, The New Gallery, and Audain Gallery. She was a finalist in the 2018 RBC Canadian Painting Competition, and is the recipient of awards and residencies including the Banff Centre's Late Winter BAiR (2020), and the AiR Sandnes residency in Norway (2016). She holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art & Design (2015) and an MFA from the University of Guelph (2019).

Deborah Wang (Curator and Artistic Director, DesignTO)
Deborah Wang (MFA, M.Arch) is a Taiwanese Canadian curator and designer based in Toronto, with a broad range of experiences in contemporary art, design and architecture that spans two decades. As Artistic Director of DesignTO, she has experience building and running a non-profit arts organization that produces Canada’s leading and largest annual design festival, and curating numerous public programs and exhibitions for DesignTO and independently. She has been interviewed by The Globe and Mail and Monocle Radio and profiled in Azure Magazine. Alongside her work with DesignTO, Deborah continues to practice architecture with award-winning practices.

Ed Pien (Artist)
Ed Pien is a Canadian artist based in Toronto. He has been making art for over 30 years. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, he immigrated to Canada with his family at the age of eleven. Pien has shown extensively, both nationally and internationally, in venues that include the Drawing Centre, NYC: the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; The Canadian Culture Centre in Paris; The Goethe Institute in Berlin; The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; The Art Gallery of Ontario; Musée des beaux arts, Montreal; Musée d’art contemporain, Montreal; Songzhuang Art Centre, Beijing; the National Art Gallery of Canada; as well as Oboro. He has participated in the 2000 and 2002 Montreal Biennales; the 18th Edition of the Sydney Biennale, and “Oh Canada” at MASS MoCA. Pien also presented work at the 5th Edition of the Moscow Biennale, and the Beijing International Art Biennale.

Sameer Farooq (Artist and Filmmaker)
Sameer Farooq is a Canadian artist of Pakistani and Ugandan Indian descent. He has held exhibitions at institutions around the world including the Lilley Museum, Nevada; Vicki Myhren Gallery, Denver; Aga Khan Museum, Toronto; Institute of Islamic Culture, Paris; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; The British Library, London; Maquis Projects, Turkey; Sol Koffler Gallery, Rhode Island; Trankat, Morocco; Artellewa, Cairo; Art Gallery of Ontario; and Sanat Limani, Turkey. Farooq holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI), a BFA from Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam, NL) and a BA from McGill University (Montreal, QC). Farooq was longlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2018, Canada's preeminent art award.

Catherine Telford Keogh (Artist) Catherine Telford Keogh is an artist based in Toronto. She studied Sculpture at the Yale School of Art (2011) and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Yale University (2013). She has participated in group exhibitions at Seattle Art Museum, WA; Bronx Museum, NYC; The Alice, WA; Vox Populi, PA; Baby’s All Right, Brooklyn, NYC; Greenpoint Film Festival, Brooklyn, NYC and mounted a solo exhibition at Roberta Palen, Toronto. She was awarded the Fanie B. Pardee Prize, Yale School of Art, 2011, the Susan S. Clark award, Yale University, 2013 and was a finalist for the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship, Yale School of Art, 2011.

Plus! a LinkedIn tutorial by:

Shelly Elsliger (Globally recognized LinkedIn Trainer) Shelly Elsliger is an engaging LinkedIn Trainer and President of Linked-Express. She coaches executives, leaders, women leaders, departments, as well as corporate teams; inspiring them to maximize their professional branding potential and their social influence online. Shelly is member of the International Coach Federation (ICF), recognized as a "Woman you Need to Know" by the National Women Speakers Association and a Women of Achievement, a Forbes and Thrive Global Writer, Woman of Inspiration Winner 2019, and on the global list of LinkedIn Training Experts. She is also currently the LinkedIn Trainer for Rotman Commerce at the University of Toronto and is also a trusted speaker for LinkedIn Canada.