Ashley Slemming is a Calgary-based curator and artist, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Alberta University of the Arts. As the Program Manager and Curator for the Southwestern region of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts’ Travelling Exhibition program (TREX), she curates four new exhibitions annually.

Her most recent curatorial projects include Between the Cosmos (2020), a solo exhibition of works by visual artist Rocio Graham as part of the TREX program; Unpacking IKG: 60 Years a Gallery (2018), a research and archive-based exhibition at the Illingworth Kerr Gallery; and Absence Inhabited (2017) an online group exhibition of 27 Albertan artists for Google Arts and Culture as part of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts’ Emerging Curator Fellowship.

Camilla Brown is a curator, writer and educator on contemporary art, specialising in photography based in the Derbyshire. For ten years she was Senior curator at The Photographers’ Gallery, London previously she was Exhibitions Curator at Tate Liverpool. She works at both the University of Derby, where she teaches on the MA photography and film and at Middlesex University as Senior Lecturer Creative Industries. Her writing on contemporary photography is regularly published in books and magazines. For the past few years she has been Associate Curator at Grain Photography Hub. She is on the steering group for the Format Photography Festival. She is currently developing research growing from artists commissions working in rural areas in the West midlands for a forthcoming conference and book with GRAIN.

Examples of her work appear on her website at www.camillaebrown.co.uk

Dave Shelley, hailing from Detroit, Michigan is the co-creator of Photoville and their projects along with his partners Sam Barzilay and Laura Roumanos. He has reviewed work for many organizations, ASMP, NYU, ICP, New York Times, Exposure Festival.

Over the last 35 years, Dave has worked in all areas of the arts & entertainment industry as a Producer, Production Manager, Theater Manager, Director. A small sampling of Events include Stadium shows with The Rolling Stones, Films with Matthew Barney, Super Bowl events, Tribeca Film Festival, and a life changing week assisting Professor Stephen Hawking navigate New York City during The World Science Festival.

As an actor, Dave performed with The Wooster Group Theater Company for many years, along with other theatrical plays, tv and film projects.

Emma Chetcuti is the Director of Multistory, an arts organisation located in the Black Country in the West Midlands. Multistory connects photographers, filmmakers and writers with communities, who have little or no access to the arts, to make visible their stories about everyday life.

The work is presented in exhibitions, films, publications and podcasts to local audiences as well as regionally, nationally and internationally. The growing body of work is also accessible online and is a lasting, contemporary photographic archive of the area.

www.multistory.org.uk

Hana Kaluznick is Assistant Curator in the Department of Photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). She is currently working on the launch and inaugural displays for Phase 2 of the V&A’s Photography Centre, opening autumn 2022. She has contributed to displays including: Known and Strange: 15 Photographers from the Collection (V&A, forthcoming summer 2021), Valérie Belin / Reflection (V&A, 2019), and Kodak Canada: The Early Years 1899-1939 (Ryerson Image Centre, 2018), among others. Recent publications include texts in Photographic Canadiana and the Royal Photographic Society journals. She gained her MA in Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, Toronto.

Karen is the Creative Director of Shutter Hub, the UK based photography organisation providing opportunities, support and networking for creative photographers worldwide. She founded the organisation to create a supportive community for photographers and to provide a platform for the development of ideas and careers.

She is dedicated to creating fair access to photography and opening up opportunities for everyone. She'd love to see work by creative photographers who are looking for support and direction, who want to exhibit their work, develop their networks, and connect with others.

Karen has spoken at industry events and locations such as FOAM Museum, London Art Fair, FORMAT Festival, and the Festival of Creative Industries; curated exhibitions at London Photomonth, Cambridge University, and St Bride Foundation, to name just a few in the UK, and taken shows to Belgium, Denmark, France, Israel, Portugal, Romania and The Netherlands. She’s reviewed portfolios in the UK, Europe, the US and Israel; at Unseen Amsterdam, FORMAT International Photography Festival, Belfast Photo Festival, London Photomonth, The Photographers’ Gallery, Getty Images Gallery, Griffin Museum of Photography and the Photographic Resource Center, and more.

Karen is a consultant, curator and collaborator who works to bring innovative ideas and fundamental kindness to every project. She has won awards for photography, writing and community development. In 2019 she was named the Digital Influencer of the Year at the Holland Press Awards. Karen is experienced in working with museums and galleries, developing exhibition spaces, and collaborating with organisations such as The National Archive, English Heritage and Cambridge University. She also founded and co-directs the charitable organisation Toiletries Amnesty.

www.shutterhub.org.uk

MaryAnn Camilleri is the Founder of The Magenta Foundation, Canada’s pioneering non-profit, charitable arts publishing house. Magenta was created to organize promotional opportunities for artists, in an international context, through circulated exhibitions and publications. Maryann is known and respected for her commitment to providing a platform for emerging talent and increasing the profile of under- documented established artists.

Nicola is a Producer, Curator, Mentor and Consultant specialising in photography. She trained as an art historian, has an MA in History of Art, and a background in the visual arts, including in commissioning, exhibitions, collections, public art, artists education and professional development.

She is co-founder and Director of GRAIN Projects, based in Birmingham UK. GRAIN is a platform for contemporary photography and a hub and network for practitioners. The programme includes commissions, exhibitions, residencies, publishing, projects and events including the biannual national symposium The State of Photography.

www.grainphotographyhub.co.uk

Recent projects include with artists and photographers Edgar Martins, Indre Serpytyte, Anthony Luvera, Arpita Shah, Maryam Wahid, Nilupa Jasmin, Kate Peters, Marco Kesseler, Liz Hingley and Sam Ivin and a range of commissions and bursary opportunities for emerging photographers nationally. Nicola is also on the board of Photofusion and was one of the selectors for the Taylor Wessing Photography Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery 2019.

Tracy Marshall is an Arts Director & Producer specialising in the production of photography exhibitions, festivals, education projects and workshops. She is currently Festival Director of the new international photography biannual - Bristol Photo Festival. She is founding Director of the photography production company Northern Narratives and was previously Director of LOOK Photo Biennial, Open Eye Gallery Liverpool and Belfast Exposed Gallery in Northern Ireland. Tracy has previously been Director of Development for a number of international Arts organisations covering the development of work for classical music, visual arts and literature. Prior to this she had also been a Director of Campaigns for health, social welfare and education charities across UK & Ireland.

Bio coming soon

Dr. Yan Wang Preston is a British-Chinese artist interested in the contested conditions, perceptions and representations of nature in contemporary socie-ties. Keywords for her research and practice include landscape imagery, identi-ty, photographic methods and the environment. Her major projects include: Mother River (2010-2014), for which she conducted a series of performances along the Yangtze River in China before photographing the entire 6,211km riv-er course at precise 100km intervals; and Forest (2010-2017), for which she investigated the complexities around urban reforestation and ecology recovery projects in two new Chinese cities. Both projects were published as photobooks by Hatje Cantz in 2018.

Preston’s work has won many international awards such as the 1st Prize in Pro-fessional Landscape category, Sony World Photography Awards (2019); and the 1st Prize, Syngenta Photography Award (2017). Solo exhibitions of Pres-ton’s work have been presented at international venues such as the 56th Venice Biennale (Italy), Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum (China), Wuhan Art Museum (China), Gallery of Photography Ireland, Impressions Gallery (UK) and Xposure International Photography Festival (Sharjah, UAE). Important group shows include Ten by Ten (Fotofest, Houston, USA, 2020)), Peer to Peer (Liv-erpool/Shanghai, 2019/20)), 40 Years of Contemporary Chinese Photography (OCAT, Shenzhen, China, 2018) and Syngenta Photography Award (London, UK, 2017).

Her work is also featured on numerous newspapers and magazines such as The Guardian, Irish Times, European Photography, British Journal of Photography, and Chinese Photography Magazine. Her work is collected by institutions such as Wuhan Art Museum in China, Syngenta, Swatch, as well as private collectors worldwide.

Preston was originally trained in Clinical Medicine in China. She was awarded a PhD in Photography from the University of Plymouth, UK, in 2018. She lectures at the University of Huddersfield, UK.

www.yanwangpreston.com

Adam Whitford is the Curatorial and Publications Coordinator for the Southern Alberta Art Gallery where he curates exhibitions focusing on regional and underacknowledged artists. At the SAAG he has curated exhibitions with Bryce Singer and Lauren Crazybull and has upcoming exhibitions featuring Mandy Espezel, Gabriel Esteban Molina, and Morgan Melenka. As a curatorial professional, his previous roles include Curatorial Assistant at the Art Gallery of Alberta and Curatorial/Collections Intern at the Woodstock Art Gallery. As a writer, he has been published by Canadian Art, Galleries West, the Art Gallery of Burlington, and the Woodstock Art Gallery. He holds a BFA in Art & Design as well as an MA in the History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture from the University of Alberta.

Deborah Robinson is Head of Exhibitions at The New Art Gallery Walsall. She has been responsible for the contemporary art programme since the opening of the gallery in 2000. The programme includes exhibitions, a studio programme, artists’ projects, events and a professional development programme delivered in partnership with New Art West Midlands.

Deborah has curated many solo and group exhibitions. These have included major exhibitions by Mat Collishaw, Mahtab Hussain, Idris Khan, Hew Locke, Ged Quinn, Chiharu Shiota, Joana Vasconcelos and Zarina Bhimji. She has also worked with many regional artists to realise exhibitions and artist’s projects.

Deborah sits on the Advisory Panel for New Art West Midlands, she is a member of the Acquisitions Advisory Panel for the British Council Collection and is a Board member of Meadow Arts.

www.thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk

Dona Schwartz is a photographic artist whose work explores everyday life and culture. Her work examines definitions of family and the nature of domesticity, cultural continuity and change, and transitional moments in life. In addition to her work as an artist, she is a scholar and educator. She earned a PhD at the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in visual communication and ethnographic research. She has published two photographic ethnographies, Waucoma Twilight: Generations of the Farm (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992) and Contesting the Super Bowl (Routledge, 1997). Her photographic monograph, In the Kitchen, was published by Kehrer Verlag in 2009. On the Nest, also published by Kehrer, was released in December 2015. Schwartz’s award-winning photographs have been internationally exhibited and published. Schwartz’s work is included in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Musée de l’Elysée, the George Eastman Museum, the Harry Ransom Center, the Portland Art Museum, and the Kinsey Institute. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Schwartz is a Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Calgary, and she is President and Board Chair of the annual Exposure Photography Festival. Schwartz is represented by Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.

George Webber has been photographing the people, landscape and architecture of the Canadian west for over 40 years. He was inducted into The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1999. George has twice been the recipient of the National Magazine Gold Award for Photojournalism. His books include Requiem, A World Within, People of The Blood, Last Call, In This Place, Prairie Gothic, Badlands and Alberta Book and Saskatchewan Book. Webber’s work can be found in numerous Canadian and European museum collections. The documentary Lost Horizons: The Photography of George Webber chronicles his career.

View George’s work at www.georgewebber.ca

Mitch Kern is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication Design at the Alberta University of the Arts who has received numerous grants and awards for his commercial, editorial and fine art photography, and been featured in 150+ international exhibitions and publications in Canada, the U.S. and abroad.

Naomi Potter is the Director/Curator of Esker Foundation in Calgary. From 2009-2011, she was curator of Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre where she produced solo projects, exhibitions, and public art commissions. In 2003, Potter was awarded a yearlong Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) artist residency in Istanbul, and from 2003 to 2007 was co-director of the international artist residency program at CESTA in the Czech Republic. In 2015 was a guest of both the Australian Arts Council and British Council International Curatorial Visit programs, and has been a jury member for numerous Canadian art awards and jury’s including: a member of the Curatorial Selection Committee for Venice 2019; BMO 1st Art! Selection Committee (2017/18); Sobey Art Award (2016); and the RBC Canadian Painting Competition (2014). She currently sits on the Board of the Calgary Institute of the Humanities, University of Calgary, and the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program Committee for the Banff Centre. Potter holds a BFA from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and an MFA in sculpture from Concordia University, Montreal.

Ryan Doherty is a curator, writer and administrator who joined the staff of Contemporary Calgary as Chief Curator in 2019. He received his MA from the Centre for Curatorial Studies at Bard College in New York (2007) and his undergraduate degree at the University of Lethbridge (1997). He worked at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (SAAG) as Curator beginning in 2008 and as Director since 2013. He has curated a wide range of solo and group exhibitions across the county and has contributed to numerous catalogues and public programs. He has participated on multiple national juries including the Sobey Art Award and the RBC Canadian Painting Competition and recently spearheaded Field Trip: Art Across Canada, a national platform for collaborative arts engagement.

If you are looking for mentorship and opportunity in the Calgary/Mohkinstsis arts ecosystem come chat with me.

Sanja Lukac is invested in the Calgary Arts community as one of the Board Members of The Exposure Photography Festival, The Immigrant Council of Arts Innovation (ICAI) and as the Visual and Media Arts Associates for Arts Commons. She is also one of the founders and the Executive Director of SEITIES a traditional photography publication + gallery that is dedicated to international artists who work with traditional methods of production in contemporary photography.

Sanja Lukac is an artist originally from the Former Yugoslavia who works with traditional analogue processes, utilizing paper, plate, polaroid and film negatives in her contemporary photography practice. She is one of the Authors of THE STIMULANT, an Environmental Developer catalyzed to lessen the toxic effect of the Traditional Darkroom on the Environment and the Photographers Health.

Sarah Burtscher is the Gallery Director at Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto’s leading commercial photography gallery for historical and contemporary work from Canadian and international artists. She has curated exhibitions including MYTORONTO - an exhibition through which participants affected by homelessness connect with their community and, for four years, SNAP! - an annual photographic fundraiser in support of programs and services provided by the Aids Committee of Toronto. Sarah has also been on a number of exhibition juries including THE FENCE 2018, RMG Exposed in 2017 and 2018, among others.

Raised in Canada, Tiffany studied photojournalism in college and later founded the Overlapse imprint in London, UK while researching for her MA in Publishing. Her thesis topic investigated dynamics of the photobooks market (Oxford Brookes University, 2016). Overlapse has since published several internationally recognized and engaging books including Beyond Drifting: Imperfectly Known Animals by Mandy Barker (UK) and The Disappearance of Joseph Plummer by Amani Willett (USA). In collaboration with photographers, artists and storytellers based around the world, Tiffany works with subjects that address social, cultural, and environmental issues – topics connected with human behaviour and experience.

With over 30 years dedicated to arts publishing and photographic storytelling, Tiffany is an editor, designer, researcher and educator. From 2009-14, she edited fLIP magazine for London Independent Photography, a grassroots association of which she is an honorary lifetime member. She has been a juror for the 2020 Breadfield Photobook Dummy Award (Sweden), Photolucida Critical Mass competition (USA), the Fiebre Photobook Dummy Award (Spain), and International Street Photography Awards.

www.overlapse.com