Board of Directors
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Jorge Amigo
Director | Pronouns: he/him/his
Jorge Amigo grew up in Mexico City and moved to Vancouver in 2007, where he studied an undergrad and masters in political science at the University of British Columbia. He started his career working in brand and digital strategy for non-profits and Canadian startups, including as Director of Engagement for Canada’s National Observer. In 2018, he moved to Toronto to produce cultural events for the Toronto Public Library, where he curated the popular #OnCivilSociety series, hosting conversations on the most pressing social and political issues of our time, as well as programming dozens of literary programs.
Jorge is now the Head of Cultural Programming for the Vancouver Public Library, where he is responsible for arts and culture events, and spends his days excited about reimagining how we use library spaces.
He speaks four languages, and would probably enjoy chatting with you in at least one of them. You can drop him a line at @amigojor.
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Selena Couture
Secretary | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Selena Couture is a white settler scholar and Associate Professor (Drama) at U of Alberta in Treaty 6 territory / Métis Region No.4. She writes about history, performance and relationships to land: deconstructing settler colonial whiteness and possession while foregrounding the maintenance of Indigenous places through performance.
Publications include, Against the Current and Into the Light: Performing History and Land in Coast Salish Territories and Vancouver’s Stanley Park and On this Patch of Grass: City Parks on Occupied Land (with her partner and daughters).She is a co-director of the Ecologies research cluster with Hemispheric Encounters and part of the Kule scholar cohort focusing on Climate Resilience in the 21st Century. She was an alternative school teacher in Vancouver for 20 years before studying for her doctorate in theatre at UBC. She also sits on the board of Solid State Community Industries.
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Dale Darychuk
Director | Pronouns: he/him/his
Dale Darychuk grew up in the Kootenays. He attended the University of Chicago where he received a B.A. in Linguistics. He then returned to Canada to attend law school at the University of Toronto. He met his future wife when they both volunteered at the Powerhouse Theatre in Vernon. His career focused on
litigation particularly representing injured persons and disinherited individuals. For several years, he was President of Access Pro-Bono which provides free legal services to meet the critical needs of individuals and non-profit organizations across BC. He practiced in Port Coquitlam and New Westminster for 35 years and is now retired and living in Kelowna where he has taken up rowing and tap dancing. He continues to support all manner of the arts including a recent excursion into being a record producer. -
Marlene Ferhatoğlu
Director | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Marlene is a first-generation Turkish-American marketing and events specialist in the arts industry. Having moved to Canada over 19 years ago in the ancestral lands of the Metis people, known as Saskatoon, Marlene gained a Bachelor’s in Commerce for Marketing and International Business. While there, Marlene volunteered at the Saskatoon Open Door Society to provide newly landed immigrants and refugees with resources to overcome barriers in Canada.
Eventually, her work in digital marketing and art led to a career in Vancouver where she works for the Vancouver Visual Art Foundation as the Project Manager. Her work at the non-profit organization has produced several visual art events with the goal of growing Vancouver’s visual art scene to international audiences.
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Kimberly Ho
Director | Pronouns: they/she/he
Kimberly Ho 何文蔚 is a Chinese-Canadian interdisciplinary artist and arts administrator based on the unceded ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and Tseil-waututh peoples, known as Vancouver. Growing up in a working class immigrant family, Kimberly’s work is nourished by collaborative processes and organically aims to be non-hiecharcial. In their artistic practice, they seek to explore their Hakka diaspora through the physical body and food culture, framing new media as a dimension of queer futurisms, and immersive art as a site of liberation.
Kimberly’s creative output spans across mediums, including theatre, photography, visual arts, new media, fashion styling and writing. Their work tou saang zhu 土生豬 was presented as part of the group exhibition (Re)Visions at the Art Gallery at Evergreen, and Massy Art Gallery. As a filmmaker, their experimental dance film Dumplings / 餃子 received a Honourable Mention for Best Short Film at Festival of Recorded Movement. Kimberly was also the recipient of Vancouver Asian Film Festival’s inaugural Richard K. Wong Film Fund and winner of the People’s Choice Award for Best Short Film for their participatory documentary To Make Ends Meat 心頭肉. Their acting credits included Theory at Rumble Theatre’s Tremors Festival, the world premiere of House and Home at Firehall Arts Centre, and No More Parties, featured in film festival platforms including Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and was one of seven films selected to represent Canada for Telefilm’s Not Short on Talent program at Clermont-Ferrand.
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Erika Latta
Director | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Erika Latta is the artistic co-director and co-founder of WaxFactory in New York City. WaxFactory continues to nurture a hybrid approach, based on unconventional narrative styles, originally dramaturgy, visual and physical rigor, technological experimentation and site-responsive work. With the company, she works as a director, writer, actor, sound designer and educator. As an actor and director she has presented work in international venues and festivals throughout Europe and Latin America creating long lasting partnerships with artists and designers. She holds a BFA in Theater from the University of Washington, and an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. Erika is also an associate director of the French trans-media company Begat Theater. For Begat, she co-conceived, directed, designed sound and co-wrote several of Begat productions. Begat Theater’s productions have been awarded numerous grants, co-productions and partnerships, as well as the generous support from FACE (French American Fund for Contemporary Theater). Erika is a member of the Society of Authors (SACD) in France, and she continues to author and co-author many of the original productions for both WaxFactory and Begat Theater. Outside her company, she has worked with Felix Barret and Maxine Doyle of Punchdrunk (SLEEP NO MORE), Robert Wilson at the Watermill Center, Anne Bogart (SITI Company), Robert Woodruff, Victor Gautier Martin, Tina Landau, and Chuck Mee, among others. She continues to work in cinema both as an actor, director and photographer in feature length films, hybrid performance and new media. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the School For the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University in Theater and Performance.
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Sadira Rodrigues
Treasurer | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Sadira Rodrigues is an educator, curator, writer, and arts administrator. From social-profit enterprises such as artist-run-centres and public galleries to museums, grant funding, and higher education, she has assembled deep knowledge of the arts and culture sector in Canada and beyond.
She is committed to working across disciplines and has been fortunate to engage with artists and organizations in dance, theatre, music, and the visual arts. She has been the recipient of numerous grants to support both her curatorial and academic research activities. In addition to institutional roles, she has kept an independent curatorial practice, organized conferences and cultural events, lectured, and participated on numerous society boards. As a settler-immigrant, her work is committed to examining decolonization and Canadian cultural institutions. She is currently the Director/Curator of the Sunshine Coast Arts Council, and Co-Director of Coppermoss, a retreat space on the Sunshine Coast that considers decolonial acts, land-based pedagogy, and creative practice.
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Jei So
Director | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Jei (서재형) is a Korean-Canadian growth marketer and content producer passionate about creating connections through tech and media. Born in South Korea and growing up in Vancouver, Jei lived in Toronto after getting her Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University.
With 7+ years of experience building tech startups in the financial, education, and non-profit industries, Jei brings deep industry knowledge in entrepreneurship, brand strategy, content creation, market research, venture capital, e-commerce, and digitization of financial services.
As part of the founding team of Clearco, she helped scale the world’s largest e-commerce investor to over $1 billion in just 4 years. This resulted in funding 25X more women, 9X more Black-owned businesses, and 7X more LGBTQIA+ founders than traditional Venture Capital.
Jei has a proven track record of leading marketing teams for startups and global tech brands like Intuit, where she successfully ran marketing campaigns that generated over $2.5M+ in sales through content strategy and marketing automation.
Outside of work, Jei is a violist, writer, podcast and video producer, and dancer who loves music, poetry, and interdisciplinary arts.
Jei’s intersectional identities as a half-deaf, queer, dyslexic, first-generation Korean immigrant growing up in a low-income family fuels her strong commitment to making the arts & business world more accessible to marginalized communities. Through her work, she strives to celebrate diversity, empower others, and foster a sense of belonging for all.
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Camilla Tibbs
Chair | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Camilla Tibbs is the Executive Director at Gateway Theatre in Richmond. Camilla grew up partly in the UK and partly in Vancouver, switching countries at fairly regular intervals until recently.
Her arts management experience includes working as the Executive Director of the Vancouver Writers Fest, the General Manager of Touchstone Theatre and Co-Producer of the PuSh Festival (prior to its launch as an independent society), plus positions in the marketing and fundraising departments of the Arts Club Theatre Company, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Vancouver Chamber Choir. She has served as the President of the Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards Society, Vice President of the Touchstone Theatre board, and a member of the Women’s Leadership Circle Advisory at the Vancouver Board of Trade.
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Johnny Wu
Vice-Chair | Pronouns: he/him/his
Johnny Wu is a bilingual Taiwanese-Canadian interdisciplinary, international performer and creator. As a graduate from Simon Fraser University with a double major in Theatre performance and Criminology, his work seeks to investigate humanity through exploring social justice via storytelling. Johnny believes that storytelling, on stage or screen, is a craft rooted in compassion — inviting participants to submerge themselves into the circumstance and experience the joys and traumas first hand to understand diverse lived experiences from an empathetic mind, critical to the catalyzing of social change. Understanding is the key to change, and storytelling is the hand that turns the key.
Johnny has trained nationally and internationally with mentors from schools such as Yale, Columbia, NYU, Carnegie Mellon, York University, and National Theatre School, as well as many other independent studios. His theatre credits include The Pink Line: Pain Held Tight presented at the Queer Arts Festival, These Violent Delights presented at the Summerworks Performance Festival, Movement consulting for Animus Anima//Anima Animus presented at The Public Theatre in New York City, Creative consulting for Portrait of my DNA presented at the PuSh Festival. His film and TV credits include Bunny Man placed first in the 10-minute short category and voted as Fan-Choice for best Overall Short at the Mighty Asian Filmmaking Marathon hosted by Vancouver Asian Film Festival. The film screened at 13 international festivals, including the Asian American International Film Festival, Diversion International Shot Film Festival, Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival, CAAM Fest. He can also be seen in CW’s Legends of Tomorrow and Kung Fu.