TEAM

Brannavy Jeyasundaram, Co-Executive Director

Brannavy Jeyasundaram is an Eelam Tamil writer and bharatanatyam dancer born in Toronto. Her father arrived in St. Jamestown (by-way of Berlin) as a refugee following the 1983 anti-Tamil pogroms in Sri Lanka. This same event prompted her mother’s displacement and forced her to settle in Toronto’s west-end. Brannavy is moved by expressions of diasporic memory, survival, and place. Currently, she helps organize participatory arts initiatives with the Tamil Archive Project and is the managing editor of Adi Magazine. In 2020, she was a researcher/curator in the Block by Block program for Agincourt and had an incredibly transformative experience. Her experience, especially within the context of the pandemic, solidified the importance of storytelling and collective gathering as necessary to survival. As a future leader of the TWM she hopes to help nourish our wonderful programs that value migrants as makers of Toronto’s past, present, and future. She looks forward to working with Henrick to help build a lasting legacy for our museum without walls.

Henrick Sales, Co-Executive Director

Henrick “Shoolie” Sales is a spoken word artist, youth advocate, program facilitator, and the founder and creative director of Stay Golden, a grassroots initiative in the Agincourt community that gives young people the ability to share their stories through arts and community engagement. Henrick was a researcher/curator for with the 2020 Block by Block team and alongside Brannavy, helped organize and host the 2020 Beyond the Block Virtual Finale.

Henrick started as an artist for UNITY charity back in 2011 while in high school. Throughout the years, he has done different creative programs in the communities of Toronto, ranging from spoken word, mental health, creative thinking, and design workshops. He has also been featured and performed in multiple events throughout the city.

Henrick is the 2010 Grand Slam Champion for Bam! The Toronto Youth Slam. He has two poetry books called “Take Me Home” and “Blue Lips.”

Maggie Hutcheson, Lead Curator and Researcher, Block by Block

Maggie Hutcheson is a community-engaged artist, educator, curator and consultant. Over the past 15 years she has collaborated with other artists and Toronto residents to animate oral histories of war, gentrification, homelessness and migration. Maggie has worked with a range of arts and non-arts organizations, including the CBC, Jumblies Theatre, MABELLEarts, Toronto Arts Foundation and York University. In 2011, she co-founded the award-winning Department of Public Memory, an arts collective that commemorates overlooked public institutions in Toronto. Maggie authored the Ontario Arts Council’s recently published handbook on best practices in community-engaged art, has extensive teaching experience and holds a PhD in Environmental Studies.

Maggie grew up in Toronto. Her father immigrated to Montreal from London in 1955. Her mother’s family migrated from Kent (England), Alsace and Bukovina between 1860 and 1910.

Maggie Hutcheson, chef commissaire et chercheuse, Quartier par quartier 

Maggie Hutcheson est une artiste impliquée dans la communauté, une éducatrice, une commissaire et une consultante. Depuis 15 ans, elle collabore avec d’autres artistes et résidents de Toronto afin d’animer des récits de guerre, d’embourgeoisement, d’itinérance et de migration. Maggie a collaboré avec une variété d’organismes artistiques et non artistiques, y compris la CBC, Jumblies Theatre, MABELLEarts, Toronto Arts Foundation et York University. En 2011, elle a cofondé le Department of Public Memory, un collectif de création primé qui commémore les institutions publiques négligées à Toronto. Maggie a écrit le guide sur les meilleures pratiques en art communautaire, récemment publié par le Conseil des arts d’Ontario; elle possède une vaste expérience en enseignement et détient un doctorat en études environnementales.

Maggie a grandi à Toronto. Son père a immigré à Montréal depuis Londres en 1955. La famille de sa mère a migré de Kent (Angleterre), de l’Alsace et de Bucovine entre 1860 et 1910.