– NEWS RELEASE –
Sunbury Shores Hires New Artistic Director
(23 July 2021, Saint Andrews, NB) Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature Centre has completed its search for a new Artistic Director. According to SSANC Board President, Catherine Hamilton, the Board is thrilled to announce that Joel Mason, PhD, assumed the role earlier this month.
“Joel Mason brings significant experience as an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, community finance strategist, and curator, and we are very excited to see how that experience will inform the future artistic direction of the Centre”, she says.
Dr. Mason’s PhD work is in the design of new organizational systems for the fine arts and social enrichment, from the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society & Culture, Faculty of Fine Arts, at Concordia University in Montreal.
As a trained interdisciplinarian, he brings a multitude of assets to Sunbury Shores. He has founded and led two small non-profit organizations around art and social change and has also worked in the founding and running of a multi-racial, inter-generational non-profit arts project. He has also worked as a music therapist for aging adults with dementia, programmed intentionally intergenerational artistic events, led workshops for high school and middle school students on artistic creation and co-founded the Charlotte County chapter of Dialogue NB.
A portion of Mason’s Doctorate involved designing and building digital infrastructure that was more accessible, fair, and inclusive. He designed an online map for Charlotte County residents to share their geo-located stories with each other, aimed at combating isolation and increasing the quality of our shared knowledges.
Commenting on his new position, Dr. Mason says, “I am thrilled and extremely grateful to be invited to take up collaborative leadership of Sunbury Shores. The last 15 years have been itinerant and life-giving, participating fruitfully in the growth of art, community, and ecological thinking abroad in places like Montreal, Berlin, Australia, The Philippines, San Francisco, Belgium, and Minneapolis. Now looking ahead, I am putting down roots in St. Andrews and at Sunbury, a place where I can continue my work of enriching art communities for the benefit of all, and where I can continue to learn from everyone I meet, including the non-human communities that sustain us. Please do stop by for a cuppa and a yak.”
Ms. Hamilton adds, “Over the past sixty years, Sunbury Shores has created an enduring legacy of excellence in arts and nature programming. The Board recently adopted a new model of collaborative leadership to take us into the future. With the addition of Joel as Artistic Director working with our Operations Director Angela McLean, we are well-positioned to embrace opportunities and challenges in a way that will ensure the long-term sustainability of the Centre in exciting new ways.
-xx-
Contact:
Catherine Hamilton, Board President
Sunbury Shores Arts & Nature Centre Inc.
board@sunburyshores.org
506.529.3386
