LEADERSHIP & CULTURAL PLURALISM PROJECT

Demetra Christakos is a senior visual arts administrator, fundraiser, programmer and advocate. Currently, she leads the Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG) as Executive Director and as producer of the annual OAAG Awards. She has worked with OAAG in this capacity since 2001. Christakos has raised more than $3.9 million in annual and project funding for the Association and its members. Most recently, she initiated and successfully funded the innovative pilot Diversity-through-Mentoring Leadership Project ($143,300).

While at OAAG, Christakos has funded and supervised two iterations of the OAAG Data Exchange.  She commissioned, funded, and executive-produced the following significant, innovative online resources: CuratorsinContext.ca,  FeministDialectic.ca, GalleryFinder.ca, Gallery Pal, and, most recently, Curatingpostempire.com. With Artist-Run Centres & Collectives of Ontario, she co-founded the Provincial Arts Service Organizations (PASO) Coalition in 2007, a voluntary province-wide advocacy coalition of 24 provincial arts service organizations. She co-coordinated the province-wide collaborative project The Group of Seven Project 1920→2005. Prior to working with OAAG, she was Exhibition Coordinator at the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto and Assistant Director at the Laurentian University Museum and Arts Centre in Sudbury, Ontario.