Timea Wharton-Suri

Board Chair

Timea_Headshot

Timea Wharton-Suri is an arts professional focused on program management in dance, arts-related equity initiatives, and literary arts. From concept exploration through to implementation, she has twenty years’ experience guiding dance productions, cultural programs and arts education projects that are accessible to a broad range of communities. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Dance from York University, and her Master of Business of Administration (MBA) and Arts and Media Management Graduate Diploma from the Schulich School of Business. After performing for several years with companies such as Ballet Creole and Canboulay Dance Theatre, she opened a dance/fitness studio – one of the first that now proliferate in downtown urban centres. Wharton-Suri has worked for the Dancer Transition Resource Centre (where she later served as a Board member), TVOntario, and then Toronto Arts Council (TAC), where she managed the dance and literary arts portfolios. At TAC, she worked with Canada’s largest communities of dancers and writers to administer a $2.5 million grants budget, was the architect of the What’s Your Story? and Toronto Lit Up programs, and co-developed the Long-Term Dance Projects, Cultural Leaders Lab, Performing Arts Facilities, and Animating Toronto Parks programs. Equity and inclusion inform the design and execution of each of her initiatives. Currently, Timea is a: programming consultant for Civic Theatres Toronto; producer for Holla Jazz; member of the Dancer Transition Resource Centre’s Special Awards Committee; and a member of the National Arts Centre’s Advisory Committee for its National Creation Fund.