Post-Mortem Survey for Making Art Work 2020-21
Thank you for participating in the Making Art Work professional development workshop series co-presented by Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre, Union Gallery, and Agnes Etherington Art Centre. We are looking for feedback from participants of the program to inform future professional development programs. The survey should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete. Your answers will be anonymous. Thank you for your time!
Meet Our Team
Kait Allen (they/them)
Executive Director
Kait is a queer, non-binary poet and multidisciplinary artist living in Kingston. Kait has a love for reading and writing, preferring to do both on good old fashioned paper, which has led them to their favourite artistic medium: the tedious yet intimate process of letterpress printing. Kait has been refining their creative writing skills for over 20 years, and uses their artwork as a platform to challenge and disrupt themes of identity, power, and normativity.
Kelsey Newman Reed (she/her)
Assistant Director
Kelsey is an artist, published poet, and has always been passionate about the arts. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree with a major in Art History and minor in Drama from Queen's University, as well as a Post-Graduate Certificate in Interactive Marketing Communications from St. Lawrence College. Kelsey is fascinated by art found in public and digital spaces, as well as the methods of displaying and sharing these artworks.
Re (Reanna) Parsons (they/them)
Programming Coordinator
Re is a dancer, visual artist, and scholar with a background in contemporary dance, literary theory, and dance pedagogy. They earned their BA in English and BA in Dance at the University of Calgary and are currently pursuing their Masters in Cultural Studies at Queen's University here in Kingston. Having artistically trained in performance art and physical theatre, Re's most current works explore the interdisciplinary possibilities of research-creation through an ecocritical, decolonial lens. Fun fact, Re loves cats and used to be a preschool teacher!
Hannah Schaub (she/her)
Web Developer
Hannah is an artist, graphic designer, and web developer with a passion for people. Beginning her career in Retail Buying and Marketing, Hannah became interested in understanding why people respond to specific experiences more than others, which led to the discovery of User Experience Design. With a UX certificate under her belt, Hannah transitioned from the world of small business into the non-profit world to use these skills in a new way!
Outside of work, Hannah loves to experiment with printmaking, digital art, oil painting, and many other mediums! Hannah strives to use her art practice as a way to connect with and learn from others, focusing on the themes of community, healing, and nature in many pieces.
2022-2023
Board of Directors
Caroline Cotter (she/her)
Chair
Caroline Cotter is a visual arts administrator with ten years of experience working in the Ontario nonprofit art sector. For seven and a half years, Caroline worked as the Visual Arts Program Administrator at the Ontario Arts Council. She’s held positions at CARFAC National, Galerie SAW Gallery and the House of PainT Festival of Urban Arts and Culture. Caroline is currently a Master’s candidate in Art History at Queen’s University where her research focuses on cultural heritage preservation, provenance and art restitution. She holds a BFA in Art History from Concordia University and has completed several courses in nonprofit and volunteer sector management at Ryerson University.
Susan Brogly (she/her)
Treasurer
Susan Brogly is a writer, mother and scientist. Susan has curated art installations in Boston, Saratoga, Montreal, and Kingston, and was a co-organizer of Kingston’s 2017 ON THE WALL street art festival.
Angélique Roy (she/her)
HR Chair
Angélique Roy is a Health Sciences Librarian at Queen’s University. Having completed her MA in Art History at Queen’s in 2013, she continued her studies in Library and Information Science and sought outreach opportunities to explore the intersection of art and literacy. This included internship opportunities at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and the Smithsonian American Art and Portrait Gallery Library and working across special libraries and corporate records management. Originally from the Ottawa Valley, she lived in Calgary for five years before returning to Kingston and is passionate about building community through engagement with local artists and their works.
Scott Bucsis (he/him)
Board Director
Scott Bucsis is a musician, composer and picture editor working in the film and television industry with a specialized interest in sound design and sonic environments. He has recently been fortunate enough to move to Kingston full-time after being involved with numerous musical projects while in Toronto as well sitting on the Artspace ARC Board of Directors while in Peterborough. Scott is very passionate about the importance of the engagement of the arts with the community and is excited for the opportunity to be part of the amazing work at Modern Fuel.
Grace Dixon (she/her)
Board Director
Grace Dixon is an illustrator, graphic designer and musician with a specific fondness for experimental sound design and artistic collaboration. She has most recently been involved in co-writing an instrumental score for a Toronto-based documentary and finds tremendous beauty and power in pairing sound with visuals. Her visual art practice often includes digital illustrations or textured collage work alongside themes of deconstructing/rediscovering spirituality and leaving space for growth. Grace is honoured to be a part of the Modern Fuel board and is looking forward to opportunities to contribute to, listen to and support this community.
Nenagh Hathaway (she/her)
Board Director
Nenagh Hathaway works in the School of Graduate Studies at Queen’s University. She returned to Kingston following a two-year Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Physical History of Art at Yale University and three years as a fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Nenagh received her Ph.D. in Art History from Queen’s in 2016 and her MLitt from the University of Glasgow’s program Making and Meaning: Approaches in Technical Art History in 2011. Her research interests lie in the physical makeup of artworks, from their initial design to their manufacture and, ultimately, how the resulting objects change over time. Her curatorial activities include The Unvarnished Truth: Exploring the Material History of Paintings, an exhibition held from 2015 to 2017 with venues across Canada that was accompanied by a catalogue.
Abby Nowakowski (they/them)
Board Director
Abby Nowakowski is a queer interdisciplinary artist and educator who frequently works alongside others. Through printmaking, illustration and handpoke tattooing, they work to spread advocacy for care, share stories, and make space for radical softness. Their practice extends into art facilitation with a range of collaborations including workshops, performances, and community weaving opportunities. They currently live and work as an uninvited guest on the traditional land of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabek.
Mehvish Rather (she/her)
Board Director
Mehvish Rather is pursuing research in the field of documentary filmmaking. Being a documentary filmmaker herself, with her films being showcased in different film festivals across the globe, she continues to question the methodology and ethics in her field. Her particular interest concerns with the representation of subjects in documentaries based in protracted political conflict zones, trying to envision them beyond the scope of victimhood. She questions the patterns of absences within such documentaries, such as that of humour and transcendentality.
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Fan Wu (they/them)
Board Director
Fan is a PhD Student in Screen Cultures & Curatorial Studies at Queen’s University. They have previously served as Board Secretary at Art Metropole. Their own practice intermixes poetry, performance, and community participation; they are particularly passionate about breaking down artificial barriers that divide various forms of creation. A perpetual question for them: are there ways to rethink “institutionality” at its root that preserves the good work the institution has done while transforming sedimented structures that no longer reflect an organization's values? They hope to assist in Modern Fuel's process of decolonization.
About our Board and Committees
Modern Fuel is a member-driven organization that consists of a General Assembly, comprised of all members in good standing, and a working, hands-on Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors is comprised of 12 directors, in addition to two non-voting post-secondary student positions (currently vacant), and the majority of the board must self-identify as artists to maintain the organization as artist-run at its core. The role of the Board of Directors is to provide stewardship, direction and support to the organization in accordance with Modern Fuel’s vision, mandate and values. The Board of Directors is elected by our membership at our Annual General Meeting. When necessary, additional board members are recruited throughout the year, and join the board in interim positions until they can be legally elected at the next AGM.
Our Board of Directors is a working board, in every sense of the way. Along with governance matters of ensuring by-laws and budgets are respected, they all play an active role in Modern Fuel’s programming and operations, assisting our small staff on a regular basis. Each board member must sit on at least two committees and must take the lead on at least one fundraising initiative during any given calendar year. The committees are further filled with community member volunteers.
The Programming Committee is in charge of selecting exhibitions from the call for submissions and other artistic opportunities that may arise. They also help in developing and implementing our additional programs such as residencies and roundtables.
The Development Committee is in charge of identifying potential grants and foundations, assisting with grant writing, and planning our major fundraising activities for the year. They are further tasked with reaching out to the broader Kingston community and volunteer recruitment.
The New Media Workspace and Library Committee maintains the proper organization of these two resources, writes grants specifically for the acquisition of new media equipment and text-based resources, and produces specific workshops to activate these resources and make them available to the community.
The Finance Committee is chaired by our Treasurer and supervises the financial well-being of the organization. They assist the Executive Director with financial reporting and audit preparation.
The Human Resources Committee is responsible for hiring major positions, ensuring the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of staff and interns through policies, and check-ins, and assisting with conflict resolution should the need arise. Our Nominations Committee is an ad-hoc committee of the Human Resources Committee. They meet with potential board members to make sure that they fully understand the commitment that is required.
The Executive Committee is comprised of the Co-Chairs, the Secretary and the Treasurer. They help supervise the progress of all committees, assist the Executive Director with long term strategic planning, and draft important policies.