Executive Team

Sara Angel received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, where she wrote her dissertation on the restitution cases of the Montreal art dealer Max Stern’s Nazi-looted art. Angel is the Founder and Executive Director of the Art Canada Institute, the leading initiative in promoting Canadian art and making it accessible to twenty-first century audiences through its publishing program, art education, and art fellowships. An adjunct professor at both York University and Western University, Angel teaches courses on art crime and art restitution. She is a frequent contributor to publications including The Globe and Mail, ArtNews, and Maclean’s. She has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University, the University of Toronto, Ryerson University, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Israel Museum. Angel lives in Toronto with her husband and three teenage children.

Stephen Sieger is a CPA with more than 15 years of experience and has held senior financial management positions at several companies including AGF Management, TD Bank Group, Bank of Montreal, and Sovereign General Insurance. In these roles, Stephen has had responsibility for financial reporting, budgeting and planning, systems of internal controls, and team development. Stephen thrives on supporting organizations to achieve their strategic objectives and enjoys working cross-functionally with colleagues. Stephen holds an MSc from the University of Toronto and a BSc from Western University.

Sarah Liss is an award-winning writer and editor and the author of Army of Lovers, a collaborative history of the late Canadian artist, impresario, and community builder Will Munro, which was published by Coach House Books in 2013. Prior to joining ACI, she was the editor of publications and exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario, a role she took on after nearly two decades of experience in publishing, journalism, and cross-platform media production for organizations both large (the CBC) and relatively pint-sized (Kids Can Press). Her work has appeared in The Walrus, Maclean’s, New York, Hazlitt, the Globe & Mail, the Toronto Star, Chatelaine, the Literary Review of Canada, and many other publications.

Claudia Tavernese is a Toronto-based editor and art historian. Prior to joining ACI, she was the Publications Officer at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, where she edited all content and managed the production of numerous books. Previously, she worked in the Publications Department at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. For close to twenty years, Tavernese has edited texts for academics, university presses, and trade publishers worldwide. She holds a PhD in Art History from Durham University (UK), an MA in History from the University of Toronto, and a BA in History from the University of Ottawa.

Anna Hudson, PhD / FRSC, is the Graduate Program Director of Art History and Visual Culture in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design at York University. She is a York Research Chair and the Principal Investigator of Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage, a SSSHRC-supported research-creation grant aimed at recovering, facilitating, and disseminating Inuit culture, knowledge, and creativity. Hudson is an art historian and curator specializing in Canadian and Circumpolar Indigenous art and performance, and continues to research and publish in the area of her doctoral dissertation, Art and Social Progress: the Toronto community of Painters (1933–1950).

Annie Champagne is a Quebec-based art historian who specializes in editing, translating, and revising art-related writings. With a Master’s degree in Art Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Art History from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Annie devoted herself to university teaching for more than a decade before joining the ACI team in 2019. A lecturer in the Department of Art History at UQAM and at the École multidisciplinaire de l’image at UQO, she has also contributed to various education, research and writing projects in museums (MBAM, MNBAQ) and her writings can be read in RACAR, Canadian Art Review, Lumen and Études littéraires.

Nathan Kelly is a Toronto-based web developer and digital marketer. After working for a decade in the city’s performing arts sector with organizations like Soulpepper Theatre Company and Canadian Stage, he completed an intensive coding bootcamp at Juno College of Technology and worked as a developer for a marketing agency before joining ACI. A passionate supporter of culture with an avid interest in using digital tools to enhance arts organizations, Nathan studied English Literature and holds a BA Honours from the University of Guelph and an MA from York University.

Shane Krepakevich is a designer and artist based in Toronto. He previously worked as Branding & Graphic Design Lead for Lambert & Fils and taught sculpture & artist multiples at the University of Guelph and the University of Toronto Scarborough. His art and design work have been presented in Canada, the United States, and Italy, with a practice based in the embodiment of transformation within static forms. Krepakevich operates an independent design studio, Mercury Bureau that designs limited-edition objects and holds an MFA from the University of Guelph and an Honours BSc. in Geology from the University of Alberta.

Tara Ng is an art historian and curator who most recently served as Associate Curator at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, where she curated the exhibition Norval Morrisseau (2018-19). She is guest curator of the upcoming exhibition Chun Hua Catherine Dong: I Have Been There (2021) at the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Apart from her curatorial work, Ng has worked in development positions at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Egale Canada Human Rights Trust. Her writing is featured in the exhibition publication Norval Morrisseau: Toward Another World (2019), AGH Magazine, and Global Engagements in Contemporary Canadian Art (2013). Ng holds an MA from Concordia University and a BA and BHSc from McMaster University.

Emma Doubt is an art historian and college educator based in Montreal, QC. She has a PhD in Art History from the University of Sussex (UK), completed with a three-year doctoral award from the Arts & Humanities Research Council, as well as an MA in Art History and a joint-BA in Literature and Art History from McGill University. Her research specialization focuses on issues of race, gender, and transculturation in 19th-century art and visual culture, and she has presented her work internationally in the UK, USA, and Canada. Alongside her work with the Art Canada Institute, Doubt teaches a wide range of courses in art and design history at the college level, and is especially interested in strategies for diversifying and decolonizing pedagogical and curricular approaches in art history.

Victoria Nolte is an art historian and educator based in Ottawa. She received her Ph.D. from Carleton University’s interdisciplinary Cultural Mediations program. Her research and teaching focus on two streams: on the collection, exhibition, and study of Asian art in Canada, and on rethinking migration (both forced and voluntary) as an integral part of the story and construction of Canadian art. Her research has been published in the journals Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas and Verge: Studies in Global Asias, and in Perspective: Selected Essays on Space in Art and Design (forthcoming with Vernon Press). Alongside her work with the Art Canada Institute, she teaches undergraduate art history courses at Carleton and is interested in pedagogies that deconstruct canonical approaches to studies of art.

Simone Wharton holds an MA in Art History from York University, a BA (Hons) in Art History from University of Toronto, and a Publishing Certificate from Ryerson University. She was the former copyeditor for Inuit Art Quarterly (2016-19). She has done freelance editorial, design, and curatorial assistant work for CONTACT Photography, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, York University, and YWCA Canada. Her writing has been published by The Robert McLaughlin Gallery and C Magazine. She has also co-curated the following exhibitions: Piece by Piece, Gales Gallery, York University; Helen Lucas: Roots to the Present, Todmorden Mills Heritage Site; and ab NEXT: Contemporary Abstraction by Emerging Artists (with Linda Jansma), The Robert McLaughlin Gallery.