General and Artistic Director: Manon Tourigny
Manon Tourigny was born, lives and works in Tio’tia:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. She holds a master’s degree in arts studies from UQAM, and is a curator and author. She is interested in video art, photography, performance and artistic practices that take place in public space. She has written numerous articles for specialized magazines (Ciné bulles, CV photo, esse arts + opinions, Vies des arts, Espace et Inter), in addition to writing exhibition texts for various organizations (artist-run centers, exhibitions centers and museums). For more than 20 years, she has been involved in the visual arts community, notably with VIVA! art action, DARE-DARE, the RCAAQ and Centre CLARK as co-general and artistic director. She is a member of the Regroupement de pairs des arts indépendants de recherche et d’expérimentation (REPAIRE). In 2024, she will be publishing a storybook illustrated by Fanny Mesnard, which adopts an ecofeminist perspective and questions the ways in which we occupy the land.
Administrative Assistant: Marie-Claire Mériau
Marie-Claire Mériau has been a member of the Artexte team since January 2016. After two years of faculty in Nantes in modern languages applied to administration, English and Spanish, she moved to Canada and opened a framing shop with her partner, l’Atelier Tout autour. Next, she worked at Coin des artistes, where she first experienced the joys of administration. After a brief stint in international solidarity, she returned to the arts through a dance company and Artexte.
Librarian, Collections and User Experience : Katherine Lewis
Katherine Lewis is an art librarian based in Tio’tia:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. She holds a master’s degree in information studies (MISt) from McGill University and a BFA in art history from Concordia University. After working for several years as a bookseller specializing in comics and graphic novels, Lewis turned to the study of library and archival practices. She has long been involved in a variety arts initiatives, from video to publishing to collaborative productions. Lewis is interested in Canadian art, artists’ books, sequential art, writing, and drawing.
Documentation Technician: Jonathan Lachance
Jonathan Lachance holds a DEC in arts and literature from Collège Lionel-Groulx (2006), an AEC in music recording and sound reinforcement from Recording Arts Canada (2007) and a DEC in library technologies from Collège de Maisonneuve (2018). After 12 years of experience in live event production, he decided to turn to library and information science. He joined Artexte in early 2018. His writings have been published in the Documentation et bibliothèques periodical and on Artexte’s blog.
Programming Coordinator: Kaysie Hawke
Kaysie Hawke holds a master’s degree in aesthetics and philosophy of art from Université Paris-Sorbonne IV, as well as a bachelor’s degree in art history from Université du Québec à Montréal. Active in the cultural milieu for over ten years, she has worked with numerous Montréal and international arts organizations and institutions, most recently Les éditions Esse and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. She collaborates occasionally on curatorial projects and publishes regularly in the magazine Esse arts + opinions. Her research focuses on encounters between the environment, philosophy, and contemporary art, though she gladly wanders within, outside, and around these interests.
Communications Coordinator: Anabelle Chassé
Anabelle Chassé holds a bachelor’s degree in Art History with a specialization in Museology, and a master’s degree in Museology from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). In addition to her academic research on the interdisciplinarity of the fanzine as an institutionalized object, her professional roles at Artexte, and Galerie de l’UQAM as a Cultural Mediation Assistant (2019-2021) focus on the development of social networks and digitals programs as educational and sharing tools on contemporary visual arts.
Cataloguing and reference assistant: Léa Boisvert-Chénier
Léa Boisvert-Chénier holds a BA from Concordia University with a major in art history and a minor in philosophy. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in information science at McGill University. Boisvert-Chénier is particularly interested in the intersection of knowledge and power, and in initiatives relating to decolonization, indigenization, inclusion, and resistance in the library context.
Gallery attendant: Marie-Odile Samson
Marie-Odile Samson holds a bachelor’s degree in public history from Concordia University (2021) and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in history at the same institution. Her experience in the cultural sector is varied, having begun a career in musical theatre fifteen years ago, later turning toward customer service (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Cinémathèque québécoise), research (National Film Board of Canada, Canadian War Museum), and work in collections (Montreal Holocaust Museum). Affiliated with Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, Samson’s research focuses on genocide and forced displacement during the twentieth century, as well as the use of oral history in museums to broach these difficult subjects.