Critical Distance Profile Type Curator

Kathleen Foran-Spragge is an independent curator, writer, and researcher whose work explores how patterns of listening and sounding can be altered to foster relationships between humans and with the more-than-human. Her MFA thesis exhibition at OCAD University, What Passes Unspoken (2025), featured artworks that use sound and movement to bridge linguistic divides. She serves as Board Chair at Xpace Cultural Centre and is a member of the programming committee at InterAcess. Her practice is committed to supporting emerging artists, facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration, and strengthening community connections. While at OCAD, she hosted a podcast interviewing graduate students from across the university’s six programs about their Master’s research, available on the OCAD U Live YouTube channel.Find out more

Samantha Lance became the new Curator for the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington (Bowmanville, Ontario) in October 2024. She holds a Master of Visual Studies in Curatorial Studies degree from the University of Toronto and a BFA with Distinction in Criticism and Curatorial Practice from OCAD University. Her Graduating Exhibition, The Love that Remains, was on display at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto from May 1 to July 27, 2024. She continues to engage with contemporary art and the public as a freelance writer, guest speaker, and invited moderator. Samantha’s writing has been published by The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, C Magazine, and the Master of Museum Studies Student Publication at U of T. She is a recipient of the John and Myrna…Find out more

Jonathan Middleton is an artist, curator, and publisher working between Toronto and Vancouver. He currently co-manages the Vancouver Art Book Fair and recently served as Interim Executive Director & Publisher of C Magazine (2024) and Executive Director of Toronto’s Art Metropole (2019–2024). His various publishing and curatorial roles have included as partner at Information Office (2017–2019); director/curator of Or Gallery (2007–2017), and director/curator of the Western Front Exhibitions Program (1999–2005). He was a founding member of Fillip in 2004, serving on its editorial board and as its first publisher until 2008. His artwork has been exhibited, performed, and screened at the Contemporary Art Gallery, VIVO Media Arts (Vancouver) International Film Festival, Inside Out (Toronto), the Chicago International Film Festival, Tracey…Find out more

Amin Alsaden is a curator, scholar, and educator whose work focuses on transnational solidarities and exchanges across cultural boundaries. His curatorial practice is committed to advancing social justice through the arts, and to disseminating more inclusive narratives that decenter existing canons and challenge hegemonic epistemological and power structures. His exhibitions invariably raise questions concerning the interrelated domains of geography, colonialism, extraction, organized violence, and displacement.

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Noor Alé is a curator, art historian, and writer whose exhibitions and roles span international contemporary art institutions. Her practice delves into the intersections of contemporary art with geopolitics, cosmologies, and land relations pertaining to the Global Majority. Through a relational, transcultural and transhistorical lens her work unearths convergences that engender solidarities across ideological divisions. She has held positions at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Abu Dhabi Project, New York; and Art Dubai.

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