Large Institutions Committee
maxine bailey, Chair, (she/her) is a dynamic member of Toronto’s arts community. Her passion for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility for all runs deeply through everything she does. She currently serves as Executive Director of the Canadian Film Centre (CFC). Previously, maxine served as the Vice-President of Advancement at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) where she founded Share Her Journey, a fundraising commitment to achieving gender parity both on and off screen. She also co-founded the Black Artists Network in Dialogue (BAND), which showcases Black cultural contributions nationally and internationally, and currently participates on the advisory boards and steering committees for the Toronto Arts Council/Foundation Advocacy Committee, the Canadian Academy, the Luminato Festival Toronto and the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund. maxine was named one of NOW Toronto’s Local Heroes and as a voracious reader, she sat on the juries of the Scotiabank Giller Prize as well as the Trillium Book Award.
Matthew Fava is a Toronto-based musician and arts administrator who currently serves as the Executive Director at the Music Gallery. Previously, Matthew worked as Music Director and then Program Manager at CHRY 105.5 FM campus-community radio. He served as Director of Ontario Region at the Canadian Music Centre where he reshaped the workshop and programming profile of the CMC, and also acted as Executive Director at the Tranzac, a multi-purpose venue in Toronto.
Matthew was a founding organizer of the Toronto Creative Music Lab (2015-2019) which presented an annual international music-based workshop with an emphasis on peer-learning, less hierarchical models of composer-performer collaborations, and active engagement with anti-oppression training as a component of artistic virtuosity.
Mervon Mehta A student of the late Sanford Meisner, Mehta has performed as an actor in over 100 theatrical productions, including residencies at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, and two seasons at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. He was a founding member of the Neighborhood Group Theatre in New York City, and has appeared on the stages of the Court, Steppenwolf, and Apple Tree theatres in Chicago. In 1994, Mehta put his theatrical career on ‘temporary’ hold and joined the Ravinia Festival in Chicago as programmer for their pop concert series. In 1998, he became Director of Programming and added the title of Director of Production in 2001. In 2002, Mehta was named the first Vice President of Programming and Education at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Under his leadership, the Kimmel Center brought an array of talent across many genres of music to Philadelphia. Since 2009, Mehta has been the Executive Director of Performing Arts for The Royal Conservatory. He oversaw the launch of Koerner Hall and is responsible for programming Koerner Hall’s successful series of classical, jazz, world music and pop concerts, as well as overseeing all of the other performances and events throughout The Conservatory’s home at the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning. He has served the arts community in various capacities, including acting as co-chair of the International Society of Performing Arts Congress in Toronto; as a juror for the Juno Awards and the OSM Concours; and as a grant adjudicator for the City of Toronto, Toronto Arts Council, and Ontario Arts Council. He also serves on the board of Intercultural Journeys in Philadelphia and is a member of the Toronto Music Advisory Committee. Mehta still appears on stage frequently as a narrator of orchestral works. He has performed with top orchestras in Munich, Monte Carlo, Los Angeles, Ottawa, Chicago, Houston, Budapest, and Lisbon; and at the Festival de Radio France and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, under the batons of Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, and Zubin Mehta.
Artist and activist Trina Moyan Bell is nehiyaw iskwew (Plains Cree) from the Frog Lake First Nation in Alberta. She began her career as a writer and producer for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) and co-produced and directed the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards (now Indspire) for CBC Television. Moyan is a co-founder of Toronto-based Bell & Bernard, a First Nations consulting firm dedicated to including the histories and current realities of Indigenous peoples within urban planning projects, and has spoken widely on Indigenous inclusion and empowerment. Moyan is also a muralist, a traditional dancer and a University of Toronto alumna.
Sonia Sakamoto-Jog (she/her) is an experienced cultural leader and administrator with an extensive career in Toronto's arts sector and a strong commitment to fostering diversity and representation. Most recently she served as Festival Producer at Luminato Festival Toronto, where she co-led the Programming and Production department. Prior to Luminato, Sonia served as Executive Director of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, Board Chair of the Regent Park Film Festival, and Manager of Logistics at the Art Gallery of Ontario, where she oversaw installation and logistics for notable projects including Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors. She has participated as a jury and committee member for the Toronto Arts Council, Toronto Arts Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, and the City of Ottawa.