Arts Exchange 2023 // Cohort 4
Arts Exchange is an initiative developed by MT Space in 2020 as a way to keep Waterloo Region artists employed and active in the arts during the height of COVID-19 restrictions when many artists were faced with loss of employment and opportunities. Arts Exchange gives IBR artists in the Waterloo Region the opportunity to explore new artistic partnerships, collaborate on new or existing projects, mentor each other in similar or new disciplines, and join the community of local IBR (Indigenous, Black, Racialized) artists who aim to elevate each other’s work.
MT Space pairs up participants based on interests or ideas, practices and disciplines or any general matches that have the potential for magic. Participants are funded for three weeks of collaborative creation in a timeline that suits the pairing’s needs. Artists are free to use their time together as they wish: to exchange ideas, processes, and even mentor one another.
There is NO expectation to have a finalized product by the end of the exploration. At the end of this time, artists have the option to share or present what they’ve created or explored in an artistic encounter, hosted in-person and streamed online.
For those who would like to continue developing their work, after the program has finished, MT Space is here to support them through our incubation stream.
Meet The Artists
Behnaz Fatemi
Behnaz Fatemi was born in Iran in 1991 and moved to Canada in 2018.
Fatemi received her BFA in painting from the University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran. She is an MFA candidate at the University of Waterloo from 2022-2024. Fatemi is an interdisciplinary artist based in the KW region. Her work has been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions throughout Iran and Canada.
Fatemi expresses her artistic ideas mainly in drawing, sculpture, and installation. She focuses on the deep connection between humans and their behaviors. This is an answer to her question of how human sensibility is interconnected with topics such as society, politics, religion, personal beliefs, and the like.
Fatemi was the 2020-2021 Kitchener Artist in Residence, working on immigrant- and immigration-related themes in the Pegman project. At the same year, she was also one of the members of Art$Pay Artist in an incubator program supported by the Region of Waterloo. In November 2020, Fatemi received Arts Awards Waterloo Region in the Emerging Artist category.
Cara Loft
Cara Loft is a Professor of Indigenous Determinants of Health at Humber College in Toronto, ON.
A proud Mohawk (Kanienkehake) woman from Tyendinaga (Kehn: teke) First Nation, Cara Loft currently resides in Kitchener, ON.
Her academic journey includes a BSc in Health Sciences from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2013, followed by a MA in Cultural Analysis and Social Theory in 2018.
Beyond academia, she actively engages in community development through various artistic mediums, such as singing, drumming, sewing, photography, and poetry.
In her role as a professor, Cara Loft is committed to fostering understanding and connection between Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals, utilizing the power of education and music.
Claudia Aguirre
Claudia Aguirre’s studio dance training began with Toronto Spanish dance pioneers—Paula Moreno, later training with Carmen Romero and, more recently, joining Maria Serrano’s musical ensemble.
Claudia has taken classes with master flamenco instructors in Spain, and workshops with visiting artists. She has also practiced jazz and musical theatre vocals, bass, hip-hop and Bollywood dance, earning a Commercial Dance Certificate from George Brown College, and Bachelor and Master’s Degrees from York Dance with a minor in music. Claudia and her partner now teach flamenco in Kitchener-Waterloo, Scarborough and North York; and perform with colleagues in Toronto. Together, they founded The Grand River Flamenco Fest.
Recently, Claudia received a Graduate Diploma in Urban Planning, after switching out of the PhD program where she explored planning for the arts, cultural planning in suburban communities, and arts for health and for seniors.
Raechele Lovell
Raechele Lovell is a passionate Choreographer, Artistic Director, Dance Instructor, Coach and Performing Artist specializing in multiple disciplines of dance, as well as dramatic arts and vocal music. She is a proud graduate of Eastwood Collegiate’s Integrated Arts Program, Dance Adventure Inc (In Loving Memory of Brooke Myers) and The Randolph College for the Performing Arts where she studied extensively as a Triple Threat.
Beginning her studies in dance, music and acting at the age of 3 and professionally at the age of 8 in her father’s touring steel drum band, Raechele has dedicated her lifetime to a career in the arts. Raechele has reached across the industry to gain countless credits in live theatre, film & tv, corporate and commercial settings. She is a former choreographer for the Mini Pop Kids and a known choreographer in the indie theatre scene. She has acted in independent films streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime and has been in commercials for Rogers and Metrolinx. After becoming a young mom, Raechele took a step back to focus on her new family and switched her career focus to teaching and choreographing children & youth during this time. Now, Raechele is a recognized Acro Dance specialist – having become fully certified with Acrobatic Arts and a Founding Member of Acro Dance Adjudicators. She is also a Founding Member of the RCPA BIPOC Alumni Committee and is a member of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists.
Known for her musicality, keen technical eye and attention to detail – Raechele has a passion for sharing her love of the arts and for inspiring our next generation of Artists. Recently, Raechele has taken on the role of Founder & Artistic Director of a new Professional Contemporary Dance company, DiverseWorks Dance Co. As the Founder of DiverseWorks, she is growing a dance corporation for the future – engaging not only in presenting new works of art, but also presenting classes & workshops, an apprenticeship program and a unique new line of Dancewear that is representative and inclusive of BIPOC skin shades.
Ameya
Born and raised in India, Ameya is an actor and theatre enthusiast who moved to Canada in 2021.
Apart from being passionate about building technology-based products, he is also interested in storytelling and directing.
He’s currently exploring the theatre and art culture in Canada.
Hiyam Mahrat
Originally Syrian, born and raised in the United Arab Emirates, Hiyam Mahrat came to Canada in 2018 and studied Performing Arts at Sheridan College.
Besides her passion and work in the medical and administrative fields, she is a growing artist in theatre, film and music. Her art focuses on issues of belonging, identity diffusion, and cultural erosion.
She is interested in contemporary Canadian theatre, experimental short film, and traditional performing arts. She is currently a choir member at the Canadian Arabic Orchestra. Hiyam is also interested in script writing and directing, theatrical set designing, voice acting and mixed media painting.
Hiyam is working with MT Space this summer as an administrative assistant and as an artist in the Arts Exchange program.
Jordan M. Burns
Jordan M. Burns (they/them) is a Disabled, Indigenous, Two-Spirit, Neurodivergent, multidisciplinary artist from Treaty 3 territory. Jordan M. serves as a co-founding artistic director of Third Wheel Theatre Co., this position has allowed them to explore a multiplicity of roles as director, producer, puppeteer, actor, and playwright.
They are an honours graduate of both Humber’s Theatre Performance program and York’s B.F.A. Theatre Acting program. Some of Jordan M.’s favourite credits include: Salt Baby (dir. N. Robitaille), Mno Bimaadiziwin (dir. H. Barnes), Cat in the Hat (dir. S. Prelletz), The Echoes II: Pigeon Pie (dir. M. Wodzinska), and A Pineberry’s Past (writ. J. Burns).
Follow Jordan M. on Instagram: @ThirdWheelTheatreCo / @BurnsBright97
Bangishimo
Bangishimo (they/them) is an IndigiQueer Anishinaabe originally from Couchiching First Nation located on Treaty #3 territory.
They currently reside in so-called Kitchener located along the Grand River.
Bangishimo is a community organizer, educator, and advocate. Their focus is on creating space for communities to come together allowing for Black, Indigenous and racialized voices to be heard. They are currently one of the co-founders of O:se Kenhionhata:tie also known as Land Back Camp.
Their advocacy and photography have allowed them to visit over sixteen countries; taking photos and sharing the stories of those they meet along the way. Bangishimo’s work has been featured in numerous publications and has had their work on display throughout Waterloo Region.
Most recently, Bangishimo won the Briarpatch Writing in the Margins Contest – Photography Category and was voted Best Photographer 2021 in the Community Edition.
Shan Powell
Shan Powell is a two-spirit Inuk living in Kitchener. Her childhood was spent living on the land all over BC and the Atlantic provinces.
She is a storyteller, writer, advocate, forager, and multidisciplinary artist. She is inspired by the natural world, magical practices, mythology, fairy tales, and traditional storytelling.
A glutton for learning, Shan is a member of the Writers’ Studio at Simon Fraser University, a graduate of LET(s) Lead at Yale University, and holds a BA in Classics, English, and Fine Arts from the University of New Brunswick.
She studied photography, visual art, and design at Conestoga College and the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design.
Her literary and visual art has been published in Augur, Feminist Studies Journal, Prairie Fire, Porcelain Artists of Canada, Yellow Medicine Journal, as well as in several anthologies.
You can find more of her work on Instagram as @shanmonster
Mélika Hashemi
Mélika Hashemi is an artist-researcher and pedagogical consultant based in Kitchener, Ontario.
Using art and emerging technologies, she finds ways to creatively renew intersectionality and empowerment beyond screens and institutional walls.
Mélika is the course author of Digital Spirituality and co-author of the book O Lone Traveller: Rehearsing Self-Advocacy at the Border. Her research engages with critical arts pedagogies and visual discourse analyses, particularly within New Media art and newer -isms put forth by South Asian, Southwest Asian and North African (SASWANA) diaspora with proximity to Islam.
Maria Ibarra
Maria Ibarra is a Latin American artist based in Canada. She has lived in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and currently resides in Guelph, Ontario.
Working under the name Feru, she has been a writer, painter, sculptor, and Illustrator, but above all a passionate lover of a medium that everyone has used at one time in their lives: plasticine. She has been working with plasticine since she was very young, and finds it to be the perfect match for the themes she shows in her art work and uses to illustrate her storybooks.
Feru’s work always includes the themes of the meaning of happiness, the small details in life that make the difference, childhood dreams, all those things forgotten in our path of loosing innocence, and the unstoppable goodby of childhood. She uses a mixture of colours, thousands of plasticine dots, worked with patience and care, to form delicate and jewel-like creations.
Feru was born in Cartagena, Colombia, where the warm weather, the people, the sun, the beach, and the colourful environment, nurtured and influenced her inspiration and art work. As an emerging artist she hasn’t wasted an opportunity to learn new material and technique. Her academic development has been between Colombia, Canada, EEUU, and Spain, countries that have supplemented her perspective as an artist.
Her art has been shown in more than twenty-five individual and collective exhibitions, and features in her two children’s books. She has also been a tireless art teacher, spreading the importance of art and its benefits.
Edwin Laryea
Originally from Ghana, West Africa, Dr. Edwin Laryea is an anti-racist researcher and an accomplished educator, teacher, and lecturer, with a passion for equal representation and the creation of safe and affirming spaces for muted narratives. His extensive work with African youth in the Waterloo Region has focused on youth empowerment and the harnessing of the “hidden” potential that they possess.
He holds a Ph.D. in Education with a specialization in the successful education of African students with refugee backgrounds in Canadian schools. His research study used a strength-based approach to highlight the students’ capabilities and to deconstruct the negativity that accompanies their educational experiences in the Canadian research literature.
Edwin is a passionate community advocate with several years of community leadership experience, having served as a Board Member, Vice–President, Chair, and President for 15 community organizations including, K-W United Way, Crime Prevention Council, African Canadian Association of Waterloo Region, Social Planning Council, Multicultural Centre, Waterloo Mayor’s Advisory, Vice-Chair of the Museum Board of Governors, and President of K-W Kiwanis Club. Presently, he is the Community Representative on the University of Waterloo Ethics Research Board.
Edwin is a veteran of four elections, two at the federal level, and two at the municipal level. He has lived in Waterloo since 1971. He has three lovely daughters.
Carlos Parada
Carlos Parada is the Outreach Co-ordinator for MT Space.