Flora Shum

Artistic Director

flora@carfacontario.ca

Flora Shum is a Hong Kong born-Tkaronto/Toronto based artist, educator, and cultural worker. She co-directs Paperhouse Studio (c.2013), where she carries forward the vision for paper as a medium, and leads arts-based programming for underserved communities. She is one half of duo collective—AURA and is a member of Toronto Arts Council’s Creative Communities Committee. Her artistic practice is experimental and collaborative by nature, with roots in papermaking, printmaking, and book arts, extending to found objects, sculpture, and installation. She has exhibited locally and internationally, including Toronto (ON), Whistler (BC), New York (NY), and Hong Kong.

She also has project management and facilitation experience of over 10 years, and has worked with many notable organizations such as Harbourfront Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto Public Library, Toronto Biennial of Art, Textile Museum, Central Technical School (Toronto, ON.), Peter Pitseolak School (Kinngait, NU.), Attagoyuk Ilisavik (Pangnirtung, NU.), and Mozilla Foundation with YWCA Toronto and Youth Empowering Parents.

Jason Samilski

Executive Director

jason@carfacontario.ca

Jason is a Toronto-based literary artist and musician His work has been published in print and online, and his radio dramas have been broadcasted in Canada and the U.S. Jason also served as a Creative Director of CUE, an award-winning Toronto-based arts initiative that, since 2008, has provided over $500,000 in high-access grants for new generation artists who experience social, cultural, and economic marginalization. As a co-developer of the initiative since its inception, Jason spearheaded CUE's many programs and projects including high-access project grants, employment, mentorship, curatorial and artistic creation residencies, discipline-specific development programs, creative enterprise support programs, and pop-up exhibitions. Jason was also responsible for developing, launching, and overseeing direction and operations of CUE's Margin of Eras Gallery, a 1300-square-foot multidisciplinary gallery and cultural space in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood that, between 2017-2020 produced over 70 exhibitions and events engaging and presenting the works of 360 artists.

Sean Lee

Director

Sean Lee is an artist and curator exploring the notion of disability art and accessibility as the last avant-garde. His methodology reframes embodied difference as a means to resist traditional aesthetic idealities. Orienting towards a “crip horizon”, Sean’s practice gestures towards the transformative possibilities of a world that desires the way 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 moderator 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. 

Ashley Snook 

Director

Ashley is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and educator residing in Tkaronto/Toronto, Ontario. Informed by biology, scientific research and socio-cultural dynamics, Snook explores the complexities of diverse living networks and the concept of animality through drawing, installation, and sculpture. Snook has shown her work nationally, including her most recent solo exhibition NODES: Animality and Kinship at McIntosh Gallery (London, ON) in 2022. She has also shown work in the 2022 exhibition GardenShip and State at Museum London (London, ON), and Come Up To My Room at the Gladstone Hotel in 2018 (Toronto, ON). Snook has received numerous awards within her academic life, including most recently a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Snook holds a PhD in Art and Visual Culture from Western University (London, ON, 2023) and a MFA from the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design program at OCAD University (Toronto, ON, 2016).