Kate Armstrong – Art and Technology
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Kate Armstrong is a Vancouver-based artist and curator with 20 years of experience in the cultural sector with a focus on intersections between art and technology. Her practice has included events in urban space, generative text systems, and experimental digital forms. As a curator, she has produced exhibitions, events and publications in art and technology internationally. She founded Upgrade Vancouver as part of an international network of organizations in 30 cities, was a founder of the Goethe Satellite that produced ten exhibitions in Vancouver between 2011-2013, and is past President of the Board of the Western Front. Armstrong was an Artistic Director of the 21st International Symposium on Electronic Art which partnered with 15 galleries and organizations including the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Museum of Vancouver to present the work of 150 artists in 2015.
She is the founder of Startland, which has raised over 500K to support free training for immigrants and refugees who wish to enter the technology sector. Armstrong serves on the boards of BC Artscape and the New Forms Festival and has acted on juries for SIGGRAPH, the City of Vancouver, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and Creative BC. Armstrong is on the Creative City Strategy External Advisory Committee with the City of Vancouver and is a member of the standing jury for digital art with the Canada Council for the Arts.
Armstrong has written for P.S.1/MoMa, Blackflash, Fillip, SubTerrain, and the Kootenay School of Writing, contributed to DAMP: Contemporary Vancouver Media Arts(Anvil Press, 2008), and is the editor of Ten Different Things (2018), Art and Disruption (2015), and Electric Speed (2013). She is the author of Crisis & Repetition: Essays on Art and Culture (Michigan State University Press, 2002) in addition to numerous essays. She recently contributed to For Machine Use Only: Contemplations on algorithmic epistemology (c/o The New Centre for Research and Practice, 2016). Other books include Medium (2011), Source Material Everywhere (2011), and Path (2012). Armstrong’s artworks are held in public and private collections including Rhizome, the Rose Goldsen Archive in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at Cornell University, the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections at York University, the Library of the Printed Web, and the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of Lorna Mill’s Ways of Something (2017).
As Director of Living Labs and the Shumka Centre for Creative Entrepreneurship at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, she develops upwards of 30 art, design, research and technology projects a year and specializes in intersectional partnerships.
Hank Bull – Disrupting Culture
Interdisciplinary artist and arts organizer Hank Bull has been an influential leader in Canada’s contemporary art community for over four decades. Born in Calgary, Bull has worked and lived much of his life in Vancouver. His projects and collaborations have been presented around the world and his works can be found in numerous public and private collections. Associated with the artist-run centre Western Front since 1973, he was a co-founder of Centre A, the Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, in 1999 and was its Executive Director until 2010. In 2014 he received an honourary Doctorate of Letters from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. “Hank Bull: Connexion,” a career survey exhibition, toured to five public galleries across Canada in 2015-2017. Hank currently sits on the board of the Vancouver Art Gallery. His work is represented by Franc Gallery.
Michael Driedger / Tech Entrepreneur
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While standing in a dumpster full of drywall in 1996 (drywall I had installed in 1995), I had an epiphany. We couldn’t have survived as a species for 60 or so thousand years if we always behaved in this way. The rest of my life (archaeology degree to discover how we used to build and behave) has been spent searching for ways to bring back ancient wisdoms while leveraging modern technologies.
Having worked in construction or the design and green building research sectors since 2005, I’ve built a strong understanding to some of the answers I began seeking in 1996. Now with all these years and diverse experiences behind me I work with clients to do their own searching for how to better our buildings, our business, and our lives.
Livona Ellis – Dancer
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Vancouver-born Livona Ellis started dancing at the age of 11 at Arts Umbrella under the direction of Artemis Gordon. After completing the Graduate Program in 2010, Livona was offered an apprenticeship with Ballet BC and joined as a full-time member after one season. During her eight years at Ballet BC, Livona has been fortunate to work with world-renowned artists such as Sharon Eyal, Crystal Pite, Emanuel Gat, Johan Inger, Wen Wei Wang, and Lesley Telford.
She has been a part of Springboard Danse Montreal, Movement Invention Project NYC, The Banff Professional Dance Program and the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance Summer Program. She has created work for Live at the Bolt’ Small Stage and at Dance Deck Trois. In 2017 she received the Mayor’s Arts Award for Emerging Artist.
She is currently in Vancouver collaborating with artists in the city and is on the faculty at Arts Umbrella.
Genesa Greening – Equality In Women’s Health
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Genesa M. Greening is a Certified Fund Raising Executive whose two decades of work in Canada, Africa, and the United States has seen her advise more than twenty charitable causes to fundraise over $300 million.
In recognition of her community work and advocacy for gender equality, racial justice, and marginalized communities, Genesa was appointed to the Vancouver’s Mayor’s Task Force on Mental Health & Addiction and the Mayor’s Women’s Advisory Committee, the Prime Minister’s Women Deliver National Council, and is a member of the World Health Organization’s Working Group on Advocacy and Communications for the Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative.
She is committed to ensuring women have equitable access to the highest quality healthcare when, where and how they need it. As the President + CEO of BC Women’s Hospital Foundation, Genesa collaborates with those who share her commitment to gender equity in healthcare and invests in charitable causes that deliver social change.
She is an award-winning business leader having won the Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada and Business in Vancouver’s Forty Under 40 Award, an unapologetic feminist, and a relentless optimist.
Carol Anne Hilton – Indigenomics
Carol Anne Hilton, MBA is the CEO and Founder of The Indigenomics Institute. Carol Anne is a recognized national Indigenous business leader and senior adviser with an international Masters Degree in Business Management (MBA) from the University of Hertfordshire, England. Carol Anne is of Nuu chah nulth descent from the Hesquiaht Nation on Vancouver Island.
Carol Anne has led the establishment of a line of thought called #indigenomics- growing from a single word to an entire movement focusing on the building and strengthening of Indigenous economies. Carol Anne is currently authoring ‘Indigenomics By Design- A Seat at the Economic Table.
Carol Anne currently serves on the BC Emerging Economy Task Force as an adviser to the Minister of Jobs, Trades and Technology as well as on the BC Indigenous Business and Investment Council for the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. Carol Anne was appointed as a senior advisor to the federal Finance Minister on the Canadian Federal Economic Growth Council. Carol Anne’s work has been recognized most recently with the national Excellence in Aboriginal Relations Award from the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business.
Carol Anne currently serves as Director on the McGill University Institute of the Study of Canada, the BC Digital Supercluster, the National Canadian Community Economic Development Network as well as a juror on the national Smart Cities Challenge. Carol Anne is an instructor at Simon Fraser University’s Community Economic Development Program and a faculty lead at the Banff Center’s Indigenous Business Program where she was also a Fleck Fellow.
Pamela Liversidge – Changing The Future For Youth At Risk
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Pam Liversidge is the Executive Director of Foundry – an organization whose mission is to transform access to health and social services for young people in BC. This mission is being realized by working with over 120 partnerships to create a network of “one-stop shops” in seven – soon to be 11 – BC communities, and develop online tools and resources at foundrybc.ca. She believes young people are our greatest asset and, as a systems thinker, she loves to work with diverse stakeholders to address ‘wicked problems’.
Pam brings 18 years of strategic level policy experience within the social sector. Prior to joining the Foundry team, she worked in the provincial government to develop province-wide strategies in Aboriginal housing, child welfare, physician compensation and mental health and substance use. While her career has spanned many different areas, her heart has always been in working with youth. Pam started her career as a youth addictions worker in the community of Surrey
Craig Tomlinson – Instrument Builder
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Craig Tomlinson began building folk instruments in 1969 and Harpsichords In 1975. After working with Edward R. Turner, of the Russell Collection in Edinburgh and later with John Philips in Berkeley, California, Craig started his own workshop in Vancouver, British Columbia.
In 1988 Craig received a Canada Council Grant to research a selection of Harpsichord collections in Europe. He came away with a wealth of information, measurements and photographs as well as a good supply of excellent tone woods.
Tomlinson bases his instruments on surviving 17th and 18th Century Harpsichords from the French, Flemish, Italian and German schools of building. All the parts used in his instruments are made in his West Vancouver workshop using timbers of Yellow Poplar, German Spruce, Swiss Pear, Italian Cypress and English Beech along with logs of Ebony, Boxwood and Holly.
Tomlinson’s Harpsichords balance the tonal intricacies of their sound, a reliable keyboard and action that responded perfectly to the player’s touch and an aesthetic beauty in their decoration. Tomlinson Harpsichords, Virginals, Clavichords and Fortepianos are used by many of the top players and orchestras and may be seen and heard in private residences, music schools, concert halls and at music festivals around the world.