I am a writer and an interdisciplinary artist with a socially-engaged art practice.
I often collaborate with diverse populations living with difference or disability, and in partnership with community groups, academic institutions, national broadcasters, art galleries, schools and social service networks, through the mediums of video, audio and installation. I hope the work encourages mutual caretaking, helps combat isolation and incites social change by bringing people together.
RECENT: I have several multi-year contracts at both University of Guelph and University of Waterloo. I also direct my own projects, plus accept commissions and contracts to help you with yours. Much of my work is collaborative, so if you’d like to team up, I’d love to hear from you.
A curator once kindly described my work here: Dawn’s artistic practice seeks to interrupt civic and social spaces with unexpected moments of beauty, curiosity and joy. Her relational performances and interventions hope to offer moments of exuberance and liberation from everyday suffering and to dismantle the barriers between individuals.
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I’m an alumni of the University of Toronto School of English and Drama, of the University of Guelph’s Theatre Stage Management and Creative Writing program, of Print journalism at Conestoga college (I didn’t finish as I started getting published!), and a student of story through CBC Radio and the The Centre for Digital Storytelling in California.
I’ve produced stories for CBC Radio and Television, The Stratford Festival, contributed to solo and group shows at galleries and public spaces across Canada and featured at Nuit Blanche (Toronto and Guelph), been granted multiple awards with the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts, plus been a Video Artist in Residence in Gaspe, Quebec. I relaunched the GUELPH FILM FESTIVAL and worked as artistic director for many years and edited the multi-authored sell-out publication on Guelph’s history. I was commissioned as the lead researcher for Open Access for Ed Video’s Accessibility initiative and recently producing a large-scale, collaborative, multi-year audio project called How To Draw A Tree (Trees, Mental Wellness and Creativity) which lives on through my curation at a permanent space on campus at University of Guelph.
In academics, I have worked as the multimedia storyteller for the KDE Hub at University of Waterloo, a national knowledge and development initiative dedicated to equitable and culturally-diverse mental health promotion. I was the video artist in residence at the International Institute for Improvisation and Social Practice at University of Guelph plus managed a video lab at the University of Guelph which researched the ways in which arts-based practices can create opportunities for communities marginalized by misconceptions of difference and disability (ReVision Centre at University of Guelph).
As a writer, I has written for numerous national publications including West Jet’s inflight magazine, Metroland‘s Grand Magazine and GuelphLife, the Globe and Mail, Dogs In Canada, Ignite Travel, Guelph Mercury, KW Record, Ottawa Citizen, Outpost and Canadian Living magazines.