The Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts (ANDPVA) is pleased to announce Wanda Nanibush as our new Executive Director.

Wanda Nanibush comes to ANDPVA with over ten years experience in the arts and culture sectors of Canada. She brings to ANDPVA comprehensive knowledge of the many artistic and cultural practices, as well as years of community dedication to Indigenous Arts and Culture. ANDPVA feels most fortunate to have Nanibush as our new Executive Director.

Nanibush has worked in a variety of capacities with such non-profit arts organizations as the Peterborough Arts Umbrella, imagineNATIVE film + media arts festival, National Gallery of Canada, Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, Aboriginal Curatorial Collective and the Ontario Arts Council. While working as  the Aboriginal Arts Officer at the Ontario Arts Council, she was instrumental in developing new programs to support Aboriginal artists, artists of colour, and arts organizations. Nanibush's policy and program development work has had impacts on the goals of equity across the arts and sustainability of arts infrastructure for both Northern arts communities and Aboriginal arts communities. Recently, Nanibush's expertise as an analyst, strategic planner, report writer, and facilitator will come to bear upon new developments at ANDPVA.

Nanibush has also achieved academic degrees in cultural studies, film studies and philosophy. As a curator, her work has largely concentrated on re-contextualizing Indigenous time-based media and performance art to examine the underlying philosophical complexity of the work, as well as rethinking how culture and identity are framed by contemporary artistic discourses.  Her writing has been published in FUSE magazine and two up coming books: This is an Honour Song: Twenty Years Since the Blockades and Urban Shaman: Contemporary Aboriginal Art - Retrospective.

ANDPVA is also excited to note that Wanda Nanibush has a successful record of coordinating and programming within a variety of arts and cultural events like the Ode'min Giizis Festival in Peterborough, Ontario. While there, Nanibush curated a visual arts exhibition called, Mapping Resistances. The artists included; Rebecca Belmore, James Luna, Archer Pechawis, Robert Houle and Tanya Lukin Linklater,as well as storytellers Leanne Simpson and Doug Williams. Nanibush has also curated such artists as; Kevin Burton, Thirza Cuthand, Cheryl L'Hirondelle, Nadia Myre, and Darlene Naponse, Kent Monkman, Lori Blondeau and Adrian Stimson.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to hire someone with the credentials, calibre/ stature as those of Ms Wanda Nanibush, " says Board President Tannis Nielsen. “We conducted a nation-wide search and are pleased to be able to bring her into ANDPVA as she has the array of knowledge and vision in order to ensure that our association move forward in a prosperous way. Nanibush has all of the essential skills needed in a non-profit leader, including fund-raising and strategic planning, she also has the "life lived" experience of an Indigenous woman, on the creative side of things, having been an Indigenous artist and Curator herself, Nanibush knows what specific social, cultural, political, and economic needs our community / membership has. As ANDPVA attempts to advocate on our memberships’ behalf, I have no doubt that Nanibush’s authentic voice of life lived experience will provide honest testimony toward meeting the needs of our constituency.Wanda Nanibush has more than just a great expansive repertoire of experience in the arts and cultural sectors, she also has as an outstanding reputation amongst our community, as being a person of great ingenuity,and integrity, as such we couldn’t be happier with our selection.”

Wanda Nanibush will begin the position as ANDPVA Executive Director, on the week of November 29, 2010