Past-President, Hazel Currie
Hazel Currie is the Executive Director at the Granville Island Cultural Society. Prior to that she was General Manager of Pacific Cinematheque Pacifique, Vancouver's non-profit film institute for nine years. Her work in the non-profit sector began in 1979 and has included working with a number of Vancouver organizations including: the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, the Vancouver International Writers Festival and the Vancouver East Cultural Centre.

Directors

Barbara Clausen
Barbara Clausen is the producer for New Works and has worked in Vancouver's arts community since 1980. Originally trained as a visual artist, she later studied dance and has worked as a dance teacher, administrator and programmer. Barbara initiated dance programming at the Firehall Theatre, and has also programmed dance series at the Playhouse Theatre, the Waterfront Theatre and the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. Barbara was one of the founders of The Dance Centre, and spent four years as the Centre’s first Executive Director. She worked for three years as an officer at the Canada Council in Ottawa, two of those as an officer in the Dance Section, where she was responsible for the program of support to dance presenters. She later worked at the Touring Office, where she instituted the Dance Touring Residency Program. In 1993 Barbara founded New Works with a dynamic group of arts animators.

Mo Dhaliwal
Mo Dhaliwal is a strategist for Hamazaki Wong Marketing Group, which develops and executes ethnic marketing strategies. He founded the Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration, and has over 12 years of experience in the technology sector, including 10 years working in software development and Internet marketing in the Silicon Valley region of California. As a patron of the arts and producer of cultural events, Mo has worked to shatter barriers between people and encourage cross-cultural understanding. He is a graduate of the Business Administration Degree Program at the University College of the Fraser Valley and serves on numerous boards and committees.

Jason Dubois
For the past twelve years, Jason has been involved with various dance and theatre organizations throughout western Canada. His credits range from administrator to designer and include work with Curtain Razors, New Dance Horizons, Kidd Pivot, Joe Ink, Martha Carter, Lola Dance, The Holy Body Tattoo, Wen Wei Dance and Vancouver New Music. Since moving to Vancouver in 2004 he spent a two-year term as Production Manager & Technical Director for the ScotiaBank Dance Centre and is currently Production & Tour Manager for Eponymous Productions.

Joanne Harada
Joanne Harada has been Director of Artistic Operations with the Vancouver Symphony since the fall of 2002. In this position, she is responsible for programming the VSO’s season along with Music Director Bramwell Tovey , and for managing the operations side of the Orchestra’s performances. A native of Toronto , Joanne graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a BMus in musicology and piano. She began her career as an arts administrator and publicist with Hart/Murdock Artists Management. Over the years, Joanne has held positions with the University of Toronto Faculty of Music (Programming & Public Relations Officer), the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Associate Director of Artistic Administration), and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (Director of Artistic Operations).

Nancy Noble
Nancy Noble is the CEO of the Vancouver Museum. She has worked extensively in the museum community in Canada for over 20 years and came to Vancouver from Winnipeg, where she was the Director of Curatorial Services at the Manitoba Museum.  Nancy also worked in various museums in Saskatchewan, sat on the board of the Museums Association of Saskatchewan and was a founding member of the Alliance of Natural History Museums of Canada. Nancy holds a Master of Arts degree in museum studies from the University of Leicester, England.

Minna Schendlinger
Now Festival Manager of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival Society, Minna came to PuSh from nearly ten years of administrative work in the cultural arts in Vancouver. Minna was the Volunteer Coordinator for the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, a short-term, full-time contract position each year from 1997 to 2004. In the winter of 2003, Minna was contracted as the festival’s Administrative Assistant until October 2004. In February of 2005, she was offered the position of Festival Operations Manager for the 2005 season. Minna also worked each fall on short-term full time contract with the Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival from 2000 to 2005 as Volunteer Coordinator and coordinated volunteers for First Night 2000 and the World of Children’s Choirs 2001. Minna attended Capilano College part-time from 1995 to 1999 when she discovered there was enough work for an experienced administrator to keep her busy all year.

Fernanda Viveiros
Currently the Executive Director of the Federation of British Columbia Writers, Fernanda has worked in journalism, editing, magazine design and book publishing for nearly twenty years. She was the founding publisher and managing editor of The Steveston Phoenix, and continues to freelance for a number of Portuguese-Canadian publications. A co-organizer of the RAW Exchange Reading Series, Fernanda has provided publicity services to dozens of publishing houses across Canada and is committed to highlighting the achievements of BC authors.

Gillian Wilder
A sociologist by background, Gillian graduated from the London School of Economics with a B.Sc. and pursued graduate studies at UBC where she obtained her master’s degree. She began her career in arts administration in London, England, and became Manager of Vancouver’s Early Music Society in 1976. A year later she was appointed General Manager of the Vancouver Bach Choir and has continued in that post ever since. Besides general management, a very broad job description in the case of the choir, encompassing public relations, marketing, concert and stage management and the usual endless grant applications, Gillian has also managed numerous national and international tours for the choir. Over the past 20 years Gillian has been Chair of the Music Alliance for a number of terms, including the present. She has been Chair of Chorfest, the annual conference of the BC Choral Federation, on two occasions and the Chair of the Four Choirs Festival in Vancouver which gave rise to the Choral Federation.

Last Updated: Friday, June 27, 2008