ABOUT

Cheryl Sim is the Managing Director and Curator at the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art in Montréal. She began her career in 1992 at Studio D, the feminist studio of the National Film Board of Canada, which led her to discover video art and artist-run culture. At the PHI Foundation, she has organized over twenty major exhibitions, most notably, Stan Douglas: Revealing Narratives, Yoko Ono: GROWING FREEDOM and the group show RELATIONS: Diaspora & Painting which met with critical praise and touring engagements. Cheryl received a PhD in the études et pratiques des arts program at UQÀM (Université de Québec à Montréal) and her dissertation became the book Wearing the Cheongsam: Dress and Culture in a Chinese Diaspora published by Bloomsbury Academic UK in 2019. She has guest lectured at universities across Canada and has animated numerous panels and artist conversations in arts institutions, festivals and fairs including Plural Art Fair, MUTEK, Ars Electronica and Art Toronto. She has served on several juries for major prizes including the Sobey Art Award (2022) and the Claudine and Stephen Fellowship in Contemporary Art (2018). She is currently President of the Board of CAMDO (Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization) and on the board of the Association of Art Museum Curators.

Marie-Fei Deguire is Adjunct to the Director at the PHI Foundation. After studying Visual Arts, Museology, and obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Design from UQÀM’s School of Design, she is currently completing studies in management of cultural organizations at HEC Montréal.

Jon Knowles is a cultural worker that has lived in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal) since 2004. He worked at DHC/ART in various capacities since 2009 through to its renaming as PHI Foundation in 2019. He holds the role of Exhibitions Manager since 2019. Knowles has steered the production of PHI’s book projects, published in partnership with Hirmer Verlag since 2018. Knowles holds a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, an MA in Art Education from Concordia University and a Certificate in Project Management from the University of Toronto.

Grier Edmundson is the Technical Director at the PHI Foundation. He holds an MFA from the Glasgow School of Art and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. His first experience working in museums was during his BFA as an intern at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum where he was able to work on the exhibitions of William Kentridge, Wolfgang Laib, Dana Hoey, and Tim Hawkinson. Over the years, he has worked at various institutions including The Modern Institute, Tramway, Centre Clark, and Battat Contemporary, as well as being a studio assistant for the artists Jim Lambie and Scott Myles. He enjoys being a dad, running, and a good spy novel.

Born in Montréal, Victoria Carrasco is a Chilean-Canadian curator and is also Gallery Manager at the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art. Carrasco holds an MA in Performance Curation from the Institute of Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) at Wesleyan University, a BA in Environmental Design from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and a BFA with a Concentration in Photography from Concordia University. In 2019, she was awarded the Ford Foundation ICPP Leadership Fellowship by Wesleyan University. She is also co-editor of the bi-annual publication TURBA: The Journal for Global Practices in Live Arts Curation.

Daniel Fiset is a cultural worker, curator, researcher and author based in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. He currently serves as Adjunct Curator of Engagement for the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art. Daniel holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the Université de Montréal, in which he examined philo-technological relationships between artistic and amateur practices in photography. His current independent research addresses the intersections of art and pedagogy in cultural institutions, as well as artists' interventions in urban, post-urban and suburban territories. His art criticism has been published in esse arts + opinions, Spirale, Vie des arts, Ciel Variable and ESPACE. As a independent curator, educator and writer, he has had the opportunity to collaborate with many institutions, such as OPTICA, Est-Nord-Est, DRAC Art Actuel, Dare-Dare, the Biennale nationale de sculpture contemporaine, the Galerie de l’Université de Montréal and the Grantham Foundation.

Marie-Hélène Lemaire is Director of Education at the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art in Montréal. She has 25 years of experience in museum education specializing in contemporary art at several cultural institutions, including the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal and Concordia University's Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery. She holds an MA in museum studies from UQÀM (Université du Québec à Montréal), as well as a PhD in communications from Concordia University. Her thesis focuses on the development of a movement-based pedagogy for guided group visits in contemporary art exhibitions. Using feminist approaches of embodiment, new materialism, posthumanism and poetic inquiry, she aims to privilege and validate somatic, sensorial, and affective engagements with contemporary art. She has lectured at universities in Quebec, Canada and abroad, including the University of Ottawa, the Toronto Metropolitan University, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, and Leeds University in the UK. She has published in The Journal of Museum Education (2021), Canadian Review of Art Education (2021), Muséologies (2018), LIBRE DHC/ART (2018) and ESPACE art actuel (2024). She is the author of a chapter in the book Art Education in Canadian Museums: Practices in Action published by Intellect UK in 2024.

Born in Tkaronto/Toronto, Paul Lofeodo is an artist, writer and cultural worker living and working in Tiohtiá:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal, where he trained in Fine Arts and Sociology at Concordia University. His artistic practice is concerned with the role of normative systems and circuits of power in the formation of the subject. Paul has worked at the PHI Foundation since 2018, first as part of the Visitor Experience team before also working on exhibition installation and as an educator.

Marilou Lyonnais Archambault is a multidisciplinary artist and arts educator. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Visual and Media Arts Education, a Certificate in Art History (UQÀM), and is currently completing an MFA (Intermedia) at Concordia University. A cultural mediator at the MAC and previously at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, she also has a wealth of experience as an art teacher in schools. As an artist, her works reflect on memory, liminal spaces, and our digital condition, using a multi-faceted approach (photography, installation, sound). When she's not working on a visual project, she's exploring new avenues of sound with one of her musical projects (Saudade, (oum ).

Prakash Krishnan is a researcher and cultural worker in the fields of digital media, contemporary art, archives, and accessibility. He completed a master’s degree in Media Studies at Concordia University in 2021 and has penned a number of essays, articles, and reviews for international publications. Prakash is an educator at the PHI Foundation and works with various local organizations, artist-run centres, and collectives on cultural mediation programming and accessibility.

Dahlia Cheng works as a Digital Strategist at the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art. As a teenager, she found a passion for web development and design, creating websites as a hobby. This passion soon evolved into a remarkable opportunity when she had the privilege to work on a website for Courtney Love. After obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree in Tourism and Hospitality from ESG UQÀM, she has worked as a data analyst and as a cultural mediator. In 2014, she began her role as a Social Media Coordinator for the PHI Centre and the PHI Foundation.

In 2018, she dedicates her role entirely to the Foundation, to oversee all digital content and print projects. She has since worked on coordinating the book Yoko Ono: LIBERTÉ CONQUÉRANTE/GROWING FREEDOM (2019), and currently manages the PHI Foundation's marketing strategy and digital presence.

Born and raised in Montréal, Amelia Wong-Mersereau is the Coordinator of Print Projects and Digital Content at the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art. She was awarded the Winter Editorial Mentorship at Canadian Art in 2021 and has been a member of the editorial board at Esse arts + opinions since 2018.