In January 1999, Wakefield Brewster stepped onto his first stage as a Poet and Spoken Word Artist. Today, he is known as one of Canada’s most powerful Professional Performance Poets.

A BlackMan raised in Toronto by parents from Barbados, he has resided in Calgary since 2016, and it is in the New West where Wakefield has been able to truly flourish as a Poet and as a Person.

Throughout his career, Wakefield has been published in several anthologies and since moving to Calgary, he has produced two professional recordings to his credit.

In 2019, he was appointed as The Resident Poet & Spoken Word Artist of The Grand Theatre House in Calgary, Alberta.

In 2021, Wakefield joined The League Of Canadian Poets in order to become a more integral part of Canada’s Literary scene, while representing the standards of Diversity and Representation.

He currently is Calgary’s Poet Laureate for 2022-2024.

After all that the stage has given him, he has discovered other ways that he may repay his beloved Poetry and Arts Communities by performing silently, backstage, for them.

Wakefield finds that underneath the many hats and the many hoodies he wears, resides a wonderful life.

He would like to sincerely Thank You all for being a part of it.

Bill Chomik has practiced architecture for over four decades. Throughout his career, he has steadfastly focused on enhancing people’s lives through powerful design which blends, with equal weight, form and function. Bill has consistently striven to create impactful built environments that are at once beautiful and utilitarian.

His work, which includes the design of over 700 buildings, spans the globe. He is considered the world’s leading architect in the design of planetariums and observatories, and is currently working on projects in Finland, Helsinki, USA, France, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand. Bill’s Canadian accomplishments include the Calgary Courts Centre, National Music Centre, Calgary Humane Society, Alberta Children’s Hospital, Galt Museum, Taylor Family Digital Library, and Simon Fraser University Observatory and Science Park, to name a few.

Bill is committed to engagement in professional and community organizations having served as the president of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, chair of the Alberta Association of Architects (AAA) Banff Sessions, chair of the Calgary Urban Design Review Panel, chair of the Calgary Downtown Business Revitalization Zone, and chair of the Calgary Science Centre, to name only a few. He currently chairs the Calgary Subdivision and Development Appeal Board.

He has been the recipient of many prestigious awards throughout his career, including, among others, the AAA Tom Sutherland Award for Lifetime Achievement in Architecture, AAA Awards of Excellence, and a Governor Generals Medal for Architecture.

Bill is married to his wife of 45 years, Diane, and takes great pleasure in spending time with his children and grandchildren. An accomplished pianist, Bill also enjoys travelling, cooking, writing and golfing.

Jung-Suk (JS) Ryu was appointed the founding President and CEO of the National accessArts Centre (NaAC) in November 2020, after serving as CEO of the organization formerly known as the Indefinite Arts Centre since 2017. Under his leadership, the NaAC has grown to become Canada’s largest disability arts organization, more than doubling in size and proactively showcasing Canadian artists with disabilities on the global stage.

In February 2021, he unveiled plans to construct North America’s first multidisciplinary accessible arts hub, beginning with the revitalization of the old Scouts Hall in central Calgary that will house the NaAC’s visual arts studios – made possible by a multimillion dollar investment form the City of Calgary. In 2023, the NaAC will begin plans to develop the Won Lee Community Arts Hub in Toronto, activating a $2.5 million gallery space that once belonged to the late Canadian sculptor Won Lee.

Prior to this appointment, JS held senior roles across a broad range of sectors including: Director, External Relations at The Banff Centre; Director, Public Affairs with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind; Senior Consultant with the Alberta Medical Association; and Principal Speechwriter to His Excellency Kaoru Ishikawa, Ambassador of Japan. His career began in federal politics, where he was a senior-level campaign director and political aide to one of Canada’s most prominent politicians.

In 2017, JS was named one of five fellows from Canada – one in 50 globally – to participate in the Salzburg Global Seminar’s Forum for Young Cultural Innovators. He was named one of Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40 by Avenue Magazine in 2019. In 2022, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal. The same year, he was an invited delegate to the Banff Forum.

JS serves or has served on the following boards: US-based National Arts Strategies, the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations, Family and Community Support Services – Rocky View County, the Banff Heritage Corporation, Creative Calgary, the Alberta Health Coalition, and the Canadian Mountain Arts Foundation.

Alex Sarian is the President & CEO of Arts Commons, the largest arts center in western Canada and the nation's third largest arts facility. Appointed in January 2020, Alex became one of the youngest CEOs to oversee a major performing arts center in North America, including its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the half-billion-dollar Arts Commons Transformation (ACT) project—the largest cultural infrastructure project in Canada, scheduled to break ground in downtown Calgary in 2024.

Prior to his current appointment, he spent 18 years in New York City, the last seven at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where he served as the senior executive responsible for the organization’s portfolio of regranting initiatives, global consulting, community engagement, arts education, and artistic programming for young audiences and families.

As a recognized authority on the civic role of arts institutions, Alex has worked on cultural projects in 15 countries spanning 5 continents. As a professor, he has taught at New York University, Pace University, and City College of New York.

Alex has served on governing boards and special advisory committees for institutions including the Calgary Downtown Association, SXSW, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, and the Varkey Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize.

He received undergraduate and graduate degrees from New York University, is a graduate of the CommunityShift program at Western University's Ivey School of Business, and was an inaugural graduate of the Impact Program for Arts Leaders at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Alex is proud to have been named to the 2022 class of Calgary's Top 40 Under 40.