Mentors

Learn more about the mentors and their offerings before clicking the register button below.

Mentees may have a maximum of three (3) meetings with their selected mentor. Additional meetings can be requested and will be approved by program staff and mentor. Mentees may submit an additional registration form if they would like to meet with another mentor at any time.

Meet The Mentors

Dalton Higgins (he/him) is a publicist, author of six books, award-winning journalist and concert producer. Higgins’ publicity roster includes clients that have won Awards including: Grammy Awards (USA), BET Awards (USA), Emmy Awards (USA), The Mercury Prize (UK), Victoires de la Musique/French Grammy’s (France), and Juno Awards (Canada). His book Far from Over: The Music and Life of Drake is carried in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame collection in Cleveland, and his best-selling Hip Hop World book is carried in Harvard University’s hip hop archive.

Higgins is a former concert producer for Harbourfront Centre who now runs his own live event production company (Rap N’ Roll) and has co-produced/hosted popular podcasts for the CBC (This Is Not A Drake podcast) and Rogers Media (Black Tea). His university course “Deconstructing Drake and The Weeknd” has been featured on CNN, New York Times, NPR, and 6ixBuzz and he has been a mentor at Toronto’s creative incubator HXOUSE. 

Connect with Dalton if you want support on:

• Public Relations / Publicity + Marketing
• Communication Skills Improvement
• Arts Education
• Professional Network Expansion

Isorine Marc (she/her) is an accomplished Arts Manager with a wide range of experiences in Canada and worldwide and thrilled to share her experience with mentees. 

In 2011, Isorine founded Jamii (Swahili for “community”), a community-arts organization which mandate is to enhance the vitality of The Esplanade neighborhood. As Jamii’s Alchemist (Executive & Artistic Director), Isorine has initiated several arts-based community-engaged projects and events for over a decade. In 2022, Isorine secured funding for Jamii’s new home and has since developed year-long programming in The Jamii Hub. With Jamii, Isorine has also been nurturing relations with artists in Pikangikum First Nation (Northern Ontario) since 2018, and with artists in Nairobi (Kenya), since 2023. 

From 2006 to 2018, Isorine was CORPUS’ Artistic Producer. CORPUS is a dance/theatre company based in Toronto and performing worldwide. Isorine Marc, originally from France, graduated from the University of Brest, France, where she obtained her Masters Degree in Performing Arts Management (2006).  Isorine has sat on various Board of Directors and has been on juries with TAPA, Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council. 

Connect with Isorine if you need support with:

• Grant Writing/Review
• Project Design
• Communication Skills Improvement
• Strategic Planning
• Volunteer Management
• Accessibility
• Professional Network Expansion
• Research and/or Evaluation
• HR
• Team Management
• Programming/Curation
• Community Outreach/Engagement
• Festival Direction

Katriina Campitelli (she/her) manages the temporary public art exhibitions at the Toronto Sculpture Garden, and commissions artists for new permanent public art opportunities across the City of Toronto.

She is deeply dedicated to developing outstanding and community-centric public art projects, with a focus on creating opportunities for emerging artists. In the past, she has organized several public space projects including BigArtTO (a series of nighttime projections around the City of Toronto, providing over 200 paid opportunities for emerging artists), and lead the partnership projects for ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021-2022 (organizing over 250 temporary public art interventions). 

Connect with Katriina if you want support with: 

• Project Design
• Professional Network Expansion
• Installation Advice
• How to respond to Calls for Artists
• Public Art; Competition Help (RFP/application reviews)

Su-Ying Lee (she/her) Using gallery spaces for my work as well as self-determined platforms, engaging the possibilities within each site are considerable concerns of my practice. I am interested in employing the role of curator as a co-conspirator, accomplice and active agent. Querying what the presentation of art can contribute to creating “otherwise” compels me.

I am an independent curator and have also worked in institutions as Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), Curator in Residence at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, and Assistant Curator at the Art Gallery of Mississauga. I received a Masters Degree in Curatorial Studies at the University of Toronto and am an alumnus of the Toronto Arts Council/Banff Centre’s Cultural Leaders’ Lab.

My projects have taken place across Canada, in Hong Kong, Mexico City and Quezon City (Metro Manila, Philippines). I write creative non-fiction and social criticism. 

Connect with Su-Ying if you want support with:

• Understanding gallery systems; identifying opportunities and understanding whether opportunities are a good fit
• Research as part of one’s practice
• Curatorial strategies
• How to communicate with colleagues, organizations, curators and others
• How to ask for and conduct a studio visit
• Exhibition strategies for artists, curators and organizers; 
• Collective work; how to put together a proposal package; and more

Pam Lau (she/her) is a photographer and educator. Ambassador for Canon Canada and Curatorial Advisory Board Member for PhotoED Magazine. Recipient of the Applied Arts Young Blood Photography Award and received Honourable Mention in the Community Artist category at the North York Arts Grow North Awards. Pam teaches Location Photography at Humber Polytechnic and has led workshops for ArtReach, Art Starts, North York Arts, Workman Arts, JAYU, and Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario. Frustrated with a culture of gatekeeping and lack of transparency, Pam co-founded Ecru; a grassroots educational initiative for those who face financial, cultural and institutional barriers to entering creative industries. Funding recipient of ArtReach, Park People, Helping Hands. She is a past mentor for Gallery 44 Mentorship for BIPOC Photographers, Canon FUTURES incubator, Business in the Streets Monetize Your Art program.

Connect with Pam if you need support with:

• Grant or Proposal-writing/Review
• Project Design
• Communication Skills Improvement
• Strategic Planning
• Arts Education
• Professional Network Expansion
• Self-Care and Wellness

Shehrezade Mian (she/her) is a Pakistan-born, creative producer based between Toronto and Pakistan. In 2022, Mian’s feature film Concrete Valley premiered at TIFF 2022, followed by an international premiere at the Berlinale in 2023.

Mian is an alumnus of the Toronto International Film Festival-Netflix Talent Accelerator, EAVE Access and Rotterdam Producers Lab. Mian’s films have played at festivals across the globe, receiving press from The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Criterion Daily, Mubi Notebook, CinemaScope, The Globe and mail and more. In 2021 Mian founded Markhor Pictures, a production company that seeks to champion unique voices from across the globe and places an emphasis on auteur driven cinema that explores innovative ways of storytelling. In her spare time, Mian runs a mentorship program for emerging South Asian/Muslim filmmakers who are immigrants like herself.

Connect with Shehrezade if you need support with:

• Project Design
• Grantwriting/Review
• Professional Network Expansion
• Communication Skills Improvement
• Strategic Planning
• Self Care & Wellness
• Education and Coaching