A community and city-builder at heart, Patrizia Libralato is an original founder of the Toronto Biennial of Art and serving as its Executive Director since February 2017. Her 25-year career spans the national and international commercial and public art world, including Wynick/Tuck Gallery and an Associate Directorship at the Sable-Castelli Gallery until 2000. For the next 5 years, Libralato lived in Italy and created and managed public and private gallery exhibitions, a national radio broadcast and large-scale cultural and musical events in Venice, Verona and Vicenza, which included artist commissions, educational programs, artist residencies and workshops. Libralato returned to Toronto in 2005 to found Birch Libralato, a leading gallery in the Canadian contemporary art world.

Ilana Shamoon leads all aspects of the Biennial’s programming and creative partnerships. She was curator at the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain in Paris (2006-15) where she curated numerous exhibitions including Native Land, Stop Eject, and regularly commissioned  artworks, events, and performances, the most recent being the acclaimed pop-up radio show, Pan African Space Station (2015). Shamoon ran the public art program at Waterfront Toronto from 2016-17 and has worked as an independent curator for institutions including Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto. She joined the Biennial Curatorial Advisory Group in 2016 and subsequently led the Curatorial Framework research for the inaugural curatorial team.

Susannah Rosenstock is the Deputy Director & Director of Exhibitions at TBA, managing all aspects of the multi-venue exhibitions program. She is a founding member of the Biennial and served as secretary of the Board of Directors from 2014-2019. Susannah has been working in the arts in the US and Canada for more than 20 years as an art advisor, arts administrator, and cultural producer. She holds an MA in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.

Prior to joining the Biennial, Susannah worked for Art Toronto (2010-2019), Canada’s only international art fair, serving as Director since 2014. While there she led a major repositioning and rebranding of the fair to raise the level of quality and awareness and place the fair within a significant international context. Previously she worked in New York managing major corporate and private art collections, including those of Goldman Sachs and MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings.

Sabrina Maher will oversee the Biennial’s network of partners, sponsors and donors, working with the Executive Director and the Board of Directors to strategically support the Biennial’s activities and bring extraordinary experiences in art to its supporters. Sabrina is a fundraiser, arts programmer, project manager, researcher and writer. Previously she held the role of Grants & Sponsorship Officer for The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (2016-18) where she managed an extensive portfolio of major public and private funders and contributed to programmatic and strategic development. Prior she has held curatorial and programming positions with DesignTO Festival, Art Metropole, the Art Museum at University of Toronto, and the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Candice Hopkins will lead the curatorial direction of the Biennial including new art commissions, exhibitions, and publications. Most recently co-curator for SITE Santa Fe’s 2018 Sitelines Biennial and the Canadian Pavilion for the 2019 Venice Biennial, Hopkins has developed major international exhibitions, including Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art (2013), National Gallery of Canada, Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years (2011), Plug In ICA , and, dOCUMENTA 14 in Kassel and Athens (2017). She has been published widely and lectured internationally and is the recipient of the 2015 Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art. Originally from Whitehorse, Yukon, Hopkins is a citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation.

Alongside Hopkins, Tairone Bastien will shape the Biennial’s curatorial vision. An independent curator and arts programmer based in Toronto, Bastien was a curator for Nuit Blanche Toronto 2018 and was a 2018 Journalism Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. Previously, he directed programming for Alserkal Avenue, an arts district and organization in Dubai and presented commissioned projects that travelled to the Venice Biennial (2015), Dhaka Art Summit (2016), and Art Dubai (2016); oversaw public engagement for TCA Abu Dhabi, a government agency that developed new arts programming across the Emirates, including for the Louvre Abu Dhabi; and, was a curator for the first three iterations of Performa (2005-2009), New York’s biennial of performance art.

Myung-Sun Kim is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural programmer. She has led curatorial programming at galleries and festivals including Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, Inside Out Film Festival (shorts), and The Theatre Centre, and programs multidisciplinary practices across various media. Her approach to public engagement focuses on intersectionality, empathetic methodologies, social processes, and engaging in civic conversations through meaningful partnerships and collaborations. She recently completed a Fellowship with the Toronto Arts Council’s Leader’s Lab. Her work as an artist has been presented across North America and in Finland, including Art Gallery of Ontario, MOCA Toronto, FADO Performance Art Centre, and Plug In ICA.

Katie Lawson joined the Biennial team in January 2019 as the Curatorial Assistant to Candice Hopkins and Tairone Bastien. She is a graduate of the Master of Visual Studies Curatorial program at the University of Toronto, where she previously completed her Master of Arts in Art History. She has held curatorial and programming positions at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Doris McCarthy Gallery, the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, bodega (NYC) and the University of Toronto. She maintains a practice as an independent curator, arts educator, and writer working within the tradition of eco- and material feminism(s). She has curated aqueous exhibitions at Y+ Contemporary, Scarborough; RYMD, Reykjavik; the Art Museum, Toronto; and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. She is the Art Editor for the Hart House Review.

Sue Holland is TBA’s Director of Marketing and Communications. Sue is an accomplished marcomm professional with a passion for integrated marketing, digital communications, brand strategy and social engagement. With 18+ years of experience Sue has conceived and executed high-profile campaigns for some of Canada’s largest media, event, entertainment and culture brands, including: the Toronto 2015 Pan / Parapan American Games Host City campaign, Toronto’s Canada 150 celebrations and 10 years promoting Nuit Blanche Toronto.

More recently Sue has held positions as an agency executive (Managing Director, Ontario – Beattie Tartan Communications), a Senior Marketing Supervisor (City of Toronto, Economic Development & Culture Division) and an independent consultant (Sole Proprietor – IM Sue Holland). Through a variety of marketing and communications roles in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors (BMG Music Canada, Kiss 92 fm, Canadian Film Centre, Eye Weekly Magazine), Sue has developed a comprehensive, integrated and wholistic approach to facilitating meaningful engagement between culture brands and their audiences.

Ange Loft authored the Toronto Indigenous Context Brief, beginning a continuous process of contextualizing the city’s waterfront for the Biennial staff, curators, and artists. As a member of the Advisory Council of Knowledge Keepers, Decision Makers, Connectors, Overseers, Guides, she will continue to inform all aspects of the Biennial’s activities. Ange Loft is the Associate Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre. She is a multi-disciplinary artist and performer from Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. Ange is an ardent collaborator, arts advocate and amateur historian. She specializes in and facilitates interdisciplinary creation, arts-based research, oral history, outdoor performance, community art design, wearable sculpture and project planning. Ange is also a Juno and Polaris nominated vocalist with YAMANTAKA//SONIC TITAN.

Natasha Henry is also a member of the Advisory Council of Knowledge Keepers, Decision Makers, Connectors, Overseers, Guides, and will contribute expertise to all aspects of the Biennial’s activities. Natasha Henry the president of the Ontario Black History Society. She is a historian, published author, educator, and an award-winning curriculum developer, focusing on Black Canadian experiences. Natasha is currently completing a PhD in History at York University, researching Black enslavement in early Ontario and is a 2018 Vanier Scholar. Through her various professional and community roles, Natasha’s work is grounded in her commitment to research, collect, preserve, and disseminate the histories Black Canadians.