Sarah Garton Stanley (SGS)

Sarah Garton Stanley/SGS (PhD) is Vice President of Programming at Arts Commons in Calgary. Prior to this, she was Artistic Producer for the National Creation Fund at Canada’s National Arts Centre. SGS centred her doctoral work on the genealogical, political, and administrative structures that house professional theatre in Canada, with a particular focus on the 1951 Massey Commission. SGS co-authors Manifesto for Now with Owais Lightwala and co-stewards the historic and beautiful Birchdale with Tracey Erin Smith. SGS sits on the steering committee for the 2024 Canadian Arts Summit and is a proud board member of Theatre Alberta and the Canadian Theatre Museum and is also part of the Buddies in Bad Times Leadership Advisory Pilot and the National Advisory for the Creation Fund. SGS has had an extensive career in the performing arts as a director, dramaturg and facilitator. She was the creator and co-facilitator of the Cycles a 7-year project whose goal was to gather practitioners around big ideas, and in theatrical terms engage with the concerns of our contemporary society. The areas of focus: Indigenous Performance (2014-2015); Deaf, disability, Mad arts and Inclusion (2016-2017); and Climate Change (2019-2020). SGS is a two-time recipient of an Arne Bengt Johansson Fellowship from the Banff Forum, and co-editor of Materials for Creation.

Session:

• Panel B: Social Cohesion and the Role of Cultural Policy (Saturday, April 13 - 2:30 p.m.)