Biographies

Sarah Cole

Sarah Cole is a 21 year old bisexual artist from Aurora with an education in Seneca’s Illustration program, she’s also attended the Art Fundamentals program and graduated with flying colours. Besides these programs, she’s mostly self taught. While not professional, she’s taught small seminars to young children on art basics, and assists her siblings and friends with character design and writing.

Sarah was a Co-Op student with Stephanie Nicolo from the September 2017/2018 semester. Sarah had a role in our Milestone Mural Canada 150 unveiling and the preparation of MCOYA 2018 (Mayor’s Celebration of Youth Arts) that they participated in as an artist and student curator. They had several other responsibilities while working with us, however, those are two major pieces. 

 As for work experience, she’s done freelance commission work for several years now, mostly focusing on character design, environmental storytelling and world building. She’s also painted murals for local schools, and has done tattoo designs.

Mary Anne (Mare) Garcia (she/her)

is a Canadian Filipinx product/furniture designer and creative director behind Space Queen Studio – a Toronto-based home goods studio where cute ‘n kitschy meets pop culture but with a succulent green twist. Garcia’s creative practice is guided by her fascination with building, experimentation, and material exploration. She is a recipient of COFO design’s inaugural design challenge, and an advocate of slow and ethical design. Her work looks to transform ordinary interactions through playfulness and movement.

V. T. Nayani

V. T. Nayani (nine-knee) is a director, producer, and writer for the screen. She is an alumni of the CBC’s Workshop for Diverse Creators, HotDocs’ Doc Accelerator Program, and Reelworld Film Festival’s Emerging 20 Program. Nayani is also a recipient of the UN Women Yvonne M. Hebert Award for filmmakers and photographers. Her artistic development has been supported by platforms including the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Netflix, CBC, RBC, L’Oréal Paris, and AWID. Her work has also been championed by festivals including TIFF Next Wave, Inside Out, Women of the World, Women Deliver, Regent Park Film Festival, and Zanzibar International Film Festival. Currently, Nayani is in post-production for her first feature drama THIS PLACE (Talent to Watch, Telefilm Canada) and a 2021 Resident in the Directors’ Lab at the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), where she is developing her next narrative project SHAME. She is also working as a Commissioning Editor for Reel Asian International Film Festival’s 25th Anniversary Anthology (re)Rites of Passage. Since 2018, Nayani has proudly served on the board of Breakthroughs Film Festival, the only festival in Canada dedicated to showcasing short films by women and non-binary people.

Glenn Marais

Glenn Marais is a singer/songwriter/character educator who uses his music for healing and hope. He is a motivational speaker, performer and recording artist, with a passion for social justice advocation. Glenn’s personal and professional mantra, “Give to Live”, encompasses that ideology in his wide ranging work as the Artistic Outreach Coordinator for the Aurora Cultural Centre, in the nonprofit sector with DAREarts and his own company Music in Mind. Self-improvement is a constant in Glenn’s life, having recently completed a Master of Arts Degree at Wilfrid Laurier, released a book of poetry and currently developing and writing a musical play.

Glenn has been nominated for a Juno award, received the Donald Cousens Community Impact Award for 2021 and numerous other accolades in his work empowering and educating our young people to become the voice of change that we need to see in our world.