Featured Speaker — All Access 2020:
KERRY SWANSON
Associate Director of the Indigenous Screen Office
Kerry Swanson is Associate Director of the Indigenous Screen Office, and has been leading initiatives in Indigenous arts for over fifteen years at both the grassroots and institutional levels. She is a founding member of Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto (IFWTO) at Harbourfront Centre, and was recently Board Chair for imagineNATIVE, the world’s largest Indigenous media arts festival, where she was previously Executive Director.
As Associate Director of Granting at the Ontario Arts Council, Kerry led the design and launch of the $5 million provincial Indigenous Culture Fund. At the Toronto Arts Council, she launched their first Indigenous Arts program and the TAC Leaders Lab at Banff Centre, in addition to five new programs aimed at increasing diversity and inclusion. Kerry has a Masters in Communication and Culture from Ryerson and York Universities, where her thesis paper on the artist Kent Monkman was nominated for a Governor General’s Silver Medal. Kerry was born and raised in Chapleau, northern Ontario, and is a member of Michipicoten First Nation.