LEADERSHIP
Leadership Team
The Pathways program is a collaborative effort between Arts BC, the BC Museums Association (BCMA), the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance (GVPTA), and the Rural Arts Inclusion Lab (RAIL). This group works in a trust-based co-leadership model.
Carla Stephenson | Director |
Rural Arts Inclusion Lab
Carla’s work sits at the intersection of arts, systems change, rural innovation and amplification. She is the founder of the Rural Arts Inclusion Lab and the Executive Director of Renascence, a non-profit society in Ymir BC. She and her husband of 27 years Shawn founded the Tiny Lights Festival. Carla is a member of the Arts BC Insight team and an alumna of the Positive Deviants Fellowship.
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Elliott Hearte | Executive Director | Arts BC
Elliott Hearte is an artist, arts consultant, and administrator with a background in equity in the arts and cultural management. Elliott has worked across Canada in leadership roles in the creative industry, and has had the privilege to work with artist run centres, festivals, distributors, equity seeking groups, and arts service organizations, across disciplines in urban and non-urban communities. Read More
Photo credit – Ervin Wong CBC
Kenji Maeda | Executive Director | Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance
Kenji’s (he/him) experiences are diverse and grounded in his passion for the arts, education and building community, and influenced by his Uchinanchu heritage. Based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, he is the Executive Director of the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance, Project Director for the Sector Equity for Anti-Racism in the Arts, and an arts and culture consultant.Read More
Ryan Hunt | Executive Director |
BC Museums Association
Ryan Hunt is the Executive Director of the BC Museums Association and is dedicated to supporting the BCMA’s mission to further justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion within the broader cultural sector. As cis, hetero-sexual, white male living on the stolen homelands of the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, Ryan aspires to use his position of privilege to push back against the colonial institutions and systems of power that continue to oppress and fight for a brighter, liberated future.
Working Group
To ensure that the ideas and models explored throughout the development process included diverse voices and challenging questions, we brought together arts, culture and heritage knowledge holders and equity workers to form a Working Group. The working group worked on ethics at the early stages of this project, raised and explored many questions and tensions that we continue to navigate within the program. Many of the Working Group members continue to be involved in Pathways.
Our Working Group members were Jordan Baylon, Lucy Bell/ Sdallhal K”awaas, Yun-Jou Chang, Sidi Chen, Meeka Morgan and Regan Shrumm
Partnership
The BC Arts Council is both a funder of the Pathways program and an active contributor in its development. This program contributes to the realization of commitments to equity support initiatives made in the BC Arts Council’s Extending Foundations: Action Plan 2022 – 2024 . We want to acknowledge BC Arts Council members for their leadership, and the contribution of staff and the BC Arts Council Equity Advisory Network to the program development
Pathways Advisory Network
We want to acknowledge the many people who have contributed their ideas and feedback to the Pathways program so far. We are deeply grateful for the time and energy of the following, as well as those who do not wish to be named here.
Abigail Buckwalter-Ingram
Anita Lal
Bethany Handfield
Bojana Nedic
Chelsey Gooden
Dina Unrau
Eija Loponen-Stephenson
Elyssia Sasaki
Emily Hedges
Fraser Hayes
Gordon Murray
Haley Bassett
Jazmin Hundal
Kallee Lins
Katherine Benny
Ken Hall
Kirsten Werner
Marnie Temple
Meghan Hall
Melissa Martin
Nina Buddhdev
Phoenix | Sun Park (Voice of Purpose)
Rose Clark
Shoshanna Godber
Sue Judge
Tanya Nielsen
Venta Rutkauskas
Zandi Dandizette
Zaynab Mohammed
