AKA is led by a collective
of community leaders, board, and staff.
Mandate and History | Collective | Ungovernance
Alexa Hainsworth
I am a fibre and installation artist living in Saskatoon. I am currently employed at the Saskatchewan Craft Council as a Membership Coordinator. I am a member of Bridges Art Movement (BAM) and love to garden. I received my MFA in 2013 from the U of S.
I am excited to be able to serve on the AKA Board because I take deep pride in my community and feel a duty to contribute to serving AKA non-profit organization and its mission. I am impressed with its progress and outreach of AKA and would like to continue to offer my experience to help it as it changes and grows.
Derek Sandbeck
Derek Sandbeck is an emerging artist based on Treaty 6 Territory/Saskatoon, SK. He received a BFA from the University of Saskatchewan in 2011 and has since been pursuing his independent practice. Working in a wide range of mediums, his work is largely focused on ideas of environment and space. He is one of the founding members of Bridges Art Movement, a collective of emerging artists who develop both socially-engaged and gallery-based projects. Since 2015 Derek has served as the Gallery Coordinator at AKA artist-run, a non-profit artist-run centre in Saskatoon.
Gabby Da Silva
Gabby Da Silva is a multimedia artist fascinated with the collaboration between digital and physical mediums. In her work, Gabby strongly focuses on the internal contrast, often achieved through layering spoken word. Born and raised in Saskatoon, Gabby comes from a close family whom she credits for their strength and determination, especially after she was diagnosed with a neurological disorder in 2018. As for her interest in video, Gabby thanks her parents' love of referencing 1970s and 1980s cult classics; however, Gabby did not notice her true passion for the arts until she took a few university classes in video and sound art. Currently, she is completing her BFA at the University of Saskatchewan.
Felicia Gay
Felicia Gay is muskego inninu iskew and Scottish from Northern Saskatchewan Treaty 5 territory. Gay’s practice as a curator began in 2004, soon after graduating from her BA (Hon) in Art History at the University of Saskatchewan. In 2006 Gay was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Aboriginal Curatorial Residency in partnership with AKA Gallery in Saskatoon, Sk. In 2018 Gay was awarded Saskatchewan Arts Award for Leadership for recognition of her work with curation and advocacy of creating safe and productive spaces with Indigenous artists. Recognized also was her work co-founding (with Joi Arcand) and operating the Red Shift Gallery: an Aboriginal art space until 2010 in Saskatoon. Since 2019, Gay has lived in Regina, Sk, and is the Mackenzie Art Gallery’s first Mitacs Curatorial Fellow in partnership with the Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance Doctoral program.
Kaeten Bonli
Kaeten Bonli (he/him, they/them) is a Saskatchewan-born interdisciplinary visual artist, designer and curator. Working across painting, installation, textile design and digital media, Kaeten's practice engages with queerness and abstraction as conceptual frameworks for cultural critique. Kaeten earned an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design, in 2020, and currently lives and works in New York.
Tarin Dehod
Tarin was born on unceded Mi’kmaq land originally known as Epekwitk. She is a curator, living and working on Treaty 6 Land that encompasses the traditional homeland of numerous First Nations, including Cree, Dene, Plains Cree, Nakota, Saulteaux, and Ojibwe, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. Since 2014, Tarin has served as the Executive Director of AKA, working to understand the role of the artist-run centre in joint ownership with communities, as a space that is created and given meaning through the actions of its users.
Qiming “Sezava” Sun
Qiming “Sezava” Sun(he/him) is a visual artist, witch, curator, and art educator based in Saskatoon on Treaty 6 territory. Working cross-disciplinarily through painting, drawing, sculpture, land art installation, performance art, and jewelry crafting, Sun’s work draws inspiration from nature, animalistic paganism, and queer symbolism. Sun’s spiritual and artistic practices explore the intrinsic connection between the human body and mother nature, navigate the enigmatic and often misunderstood traditions of occult origins, and narrate those untold stories of the forgotten. Sun received his MFA and High Honours BFA from the University of Saskatchewan.
Jordan Baylon
Jordan Baylon (they/she/he) is a second generation PilipinX artist, critic and community worker imagining justice and abundance for equity-deserving peoples within the spaces of all our relations: personal, communal and societal. As an artist, Jordan explores queer and racialized identities as liminal spaces: both and neither; between, across and through; both inside and outside; and both literal and imagined. Jordan’s community practice leverages a decade of experience in the non-profit arts and culture sectors, where they developed their critical lens around equity, anti-racism and systems change. After many years navigating institutions, Jordan now devotes their interest and attention to working at grassroots alongside equity-deserving individuals and communities.
Staff
Deandra Reid, Project Assistant, Re-reading Tahltan
info@akaartistrun.com
Tarin Dehod, Lead: Projects, Funding, Administration
tarin@akaartistrun.com
Jordan Baylon, Goverance Consultant
Derek Sandbeck, Lead: Partnerships, Programs, Facility
derek@akaartistrun.com
Past Collective
Kathleena Chiefcalf, Lauren Warrington, Aurora Wolfe, jelly