Sandra Laronde
Founder and Artistic Producer
As the Founder and Artistic Producer of Native Women in the Arts, Sandra Laronde is an accomplished and prolific innovator in the artistic and cultural sector, working for the past 17 years as a director, producer, performer, curator and creative leader. In 2006, Sandra was awarded the Ontario Good Citizenship Medal that pays special tribute to those Ontarians whose lives exemplify excellence and achievement in the finest order. In addition, she received the 2006 Paul D. Fleck Fellowship in the Arts from The Banff Centre. In 2004, she was one of 225 Canadians chosen to participate in the Governor-General's Canadian Leadership program, which celebrates promising leaders who are making a significant impact on Canada. In the same year, Sandra was also the recipient of Toronto City Council's 2004 Aboriginal Affairs Award for her contribution towards improving the quality of life for the Aboriginal community of Toronto. She is also listed in the Canada's Who's Who that features notable living Canadians. Sandra hails from the Teme-Augama-Anishnaabe (People of the Deep Water) in Temagami, northern Ontario and resides in Toronto. |
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Currently, Sandra is a member of the National Executive Committee for the 2012 Governor-General's Canadian Leadership Conference, and sits on the Aboriginal Advisory for the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. Sandra was one of 500 artists invited to meet HRH Prince Charles on his latest Royal Visit to Canada. She has been involved in many speaking engagements: she served as a spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee for Toronto's Olympic Bid; delivered the keynote address at the 2009 Blackfoot Arts Awards in Lethbridge, and the keynote address to the 2007 graduating class at the Temiskaming District Secondary School in New Liskeard. She was a panel member for the 2007 Portfolio Committee on Aboriginal Affairs for Canadian Heritage, and moderated a panel at the National Gathering of Aboriginal Artistic Expression for Canadian Heritage. She was a guest presenter on Perspectives on Innovative Management Practices to the board, officers and staff at the Canada Council for the Arts in 2003. Sandra has also served on numerous arts juries including the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, The Dora Awards, and has assisted in the design of the First Peoples Dance and Music Program at Canada Council. For six consecutive years, she served on the Toronto Arts Council board.
In 1993, Sandra founded Canada's only organization for First Nations, Inuit and Metis women artists, Native Women in the Arts, and has played a significant role in fostering the careers of hundreds of Aboriginal women artists. She has helped to produce an immense ripple effect of artistic growth, confidence building and proliferation of performing arts, literary arts and publishing, visual arts, and community development projects through Native Women in the Arts.
Sandra is published in Cultures in Transition (McGraw-Hill-Stewart), Gatherings (Theytus Books), Crisp Blue Edges (Theytus Books), Chinook Winds (Banff Centre Press), and Aboriginal Voices. Sandra holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Toronto, and studied Spanish Language and Literature overseas for one year at the University of Granada in Spain.
Victoria Mata is an indigenous identified Venezuelan-Canadian choreographer, dancer, muralist, urban planner and activist. Born in Montreal and raised in the Andes of Venezuela, France and The United States, Victoria has developed and directed over a dozen choreographies, that have been performed in New York, San Francisco, Caracas, El Salvador and Toronto. Victoria is the co-founder of MataDanze, a six-women dance and theater collective based in Toronto with a mission to “empower women through movement." She has been part of Aluna Theater since 2008 where she has had the privilege of performing in Bogota’s women’s festival Mujeres en Escena and Toronto’s Summer Works Festival. After attending the Indigenous Dance Residency program at The Banff Centre in Alberta, Victoria is inspired to seek further training in Dance while simultaneously learning new and innovative models that financially sustain the arts.
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Photo by Coroina Abolio |
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