Sean Lee, Chair, is an artist and curator exploring the assertion of disability art as the last avant-garde. His methodology explores crip curatorial practices as a means to resist traditional aesthetic idealities. Orienting towards a “crip horizon”, Sean’s practice explores the transformative possibilities of accessibility as an embodied politic and disability community building as a way to desire the ways disability can disrupt. Sean holds a B.A. in Arts Management and Studio from the University of Toronto, Scarborough and is currently the Director of Programming at Tangled Art + Disability. Previous to this role, he was Tangled’s inaugural Curator in Residence (2016) as well as Tangled’s Gallery Manager (2017). Sean has been integral to countless exhibitions and public engagements throughout his tenure at Tangled Art + Disability.  In addition to his position at Tangled Art + Disability, Sean is an independent lecturer, speaker, and writer adding his insights and perspectives to conversations surrounding Disability Arts across Canada, the United States and internationally. Sean currently sits on the board of CARFAC Ontario, Creative Users Projects, and is a member of the Ontario Art Council’s Deaf and Disability Advisory Group and Toronto Art Council’s Visual Arts / Media Arts Committee.

Naomi Johnson, Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Bear clan from Six Nations, has worked in the arts for over eighteen years as a curator, arts administrator, professional artist, and community arts facilitator.  Naomi served as Artistic Director for seven years and then as Co-Executive Director (2018) of the Woodland Cultural Centre, where she curated and programmed annual exhibitions and performance art events. In June 2019, Naomi accepted the position of Associate Director for imagineNATIVE - the world’s largest Indigenous media arts festival. In June 2020, Naomi assumed her role as Executive Director of imagineNATIVE, leading the organization through the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Naomi continues to serve as the administrative lead for imagineNATIVE, whose mission is to showcase, promote, and celebrate Indigenous filmmakers and media artists globally. In 2023 Naomi was honoured by the Toronto Arts Foundation with the Margo Bindhardt and Rita Davies Award, celebrating an individual artist, creator, or administrator who has demonstrated creative cultural leadership in developing arts and culture in Toronto.   

Jenifer Papararo is currently the Director/Curator at the Art Gallery of York University, where she is overseeing the building of a new multi-site art gallery. She was the Executive Director of Plug Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg (2014 – 2019); the Curator at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2004 – 2014); and the Program Director at Mercer Union, Toronto (2001-2004). She initiated STAGES biennial in 2017 a temporary public art exhibition of sculpture and performance in Winnipeg, and recently curating the 2019 iteration, including new commissions by Raymond Boisjoly, Daniel Buren, FASTWÜRMS, Kenneth Lavallee, Joar Nango, Andrea Roberts and Silke Otto-Knapp. She has presented solo exhibitions with Skeena Reece, DIS.art, Naufus Ramirez-Figueroa, Nairy Baghramian, Stan Douglas, Mike Nelson, and is currently working with Hannah Black to present The Meaning of Life at the AGYU.  She has written numerous curatorial texts and edited various exhibition related books: including My Best Thing by Frances Stark and the exhibition catalogue Enter the Landscape, and Days of Reading.  Papararo is a founding member of the artist and curatorial collective Instant Coffee, whose work has been exhibited at One +J in Seoul, South Korea;  Vancouver Art Gallery; the Toronto Sculpture Garden; the Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco; Subvision, Hamburg; Encuentro Internacional, Medellín; Sparwasser HQ, Berlin; the Americas Society, New York; and the 2nd Tirana International Biennial, Albania and are represented by MKG 127, Toronto. She is currently working with the City of Toronto and Workshop on a public art program for the George Street Revitalization Project. She joins the Visual/Media Arts Committee at the Toronto Arts Council in 2022 and is on the Board of Directors of Mammalian Diving Reflex, and Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology. 

Alana Traficante is an arts organizer, writer/editor, and curator based in Toronto, where she has been the Executive Director of Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography since 2018. She provides leadership within a collaborative board/staff/member structure, stewarding Gallery 44's mandate to support artists in the research, production, and dissemination of their work at all stages of their careers and present thoughtful and rigorous exhibitions by diverse artists. Before Gallery 44, Alana worked in her hometown Hamilton, in curatorial and administrative roles at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and as the Administrative Director at Hamilton Artists Inc., as a curatorial committee member and Vice President of the Board of Directors of Supercrawl, and a founding contributor to Critical Superbeast, a collaborative artist-led art writing and criticism platform that lived on Tumblr from 2016-2018. She credits Hamilton for her underground, collaborative, DIY spirit, which still fuels her passion for facilitating networks in the artistic community with an interest in civic engagement, capacity building, and mentorship. Her independent research and writing follow entangled research threads around networks, nature, nightlife, community, introspection, and interconnection. Alana holds an MFA in Criticism and Curatorial Practice from OCAD University (2016) and a BA in Art History from the University of Toronto (2004). 

Deanna Wong is an arts administrator who spent many years volunteering and working in the not-for-profit cultural arts sector in  her hometown of Winnipeg prior to moving to Toronto in 1996. She has sat on the boards of Dreamwalker Dance Company and the Regent Park Film Festival and has participated in various film and arts council juries over the years and was a Toronto Arts Council's Leaders Lab fellow in 2019. She was the administrative director at REEL CANADA from 2011 to 2019, and previously served as Reel Asian’s executive director from 2005 to 2008.