TOAF65 Advisory Committee

Olivia Chow is the 66th Mayor of Toronto and the first woman of Asian descent to lead the city, bringing over 30 years of experience as a community activist, school board trustee, City Councillor, and Member of Parliament. A lifelong champion of the arts with a background in fine art and sculpture, she recently launched the “Culture Connects” action plan to significantly increase city investment in local artists and cultural organizations over the next decade.

Barbara Astman is a Governor General’s Award winning Canadian artist who has, since the early 1970s, helped to radicalize visual culture through her nationally & internationally recognized explorations of photo-based media.

Flavio Belli is an artist, curator, collector, and art consultant with extensive experience across the Canadian cultural sector. His work is held in public, corporate, and private collections, including the National Gallery of Canada and the George Brown Polytechnic School of Design. He currently serves as a Director of the Tate Canada Foundation.

Dan Boyman is an entrepreneur and three-time founder with a passion for building and growing businesses. Earlier in his career, he worked on a range of large-scale events across Toronto, including the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, Toronto Fashion Week, and Toronto Jazz Festival.

Dr. Marissa Largo is a researcher, artist, curator, and educator whose work focuses on the intersections of community engagement, race, gender, and Asian diasporic cultural production.
She is Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Art & Art History at York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) and currently serves as the Graduate Program Director for Visual Arts and Art History and Visual Culture.

Anjli began collecting art in 2010, focusing on contemporary art by diaspora South Asian artists. She and her husband consider collecting to be a form of seva — a Sanskrit and Punjabi word meaning “service” — because it directly impacts artists.

Jane Perdue is a public art leader known for her decades-long career shaping urban policy and advancing public art through major city planning and private development initiatives.

Paola is an inclusive leader in museums and civic engagement, dedicated to multi-voiced public programs and learning experiences.

Tiana is a Toronto-based arts advocate recognized for her extensive leadership in cultural organizations and her longstanding commitment to community service in the realm of science, education and the arts. 

Kathleen Sharpe is recently retired as the Founding Executive Director Emerita of the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund (OCAF), having launched the program in 1999. Prior, she was Director of the Culture Division for the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. Sharpe has chaired cultural boards including the Toronto Arts Foundation. Currently she is chairing an advisory committee for the 65th anniversary of TOAF.