Arts Orillia Team
Kate Hilliard creates through movement, digital media, writing, and conversation. Her performances closely examine themes of transformation, and her process invites collaboration. Kate is the Artistic Director of Arts Orillia in Ontario, Canada, where she programs residencies and festivals to invite learning and community gatherings. She is faculty at Toronto Metropolitan University, teaching dance and acting students in the areas of creation and production. Hilliard’s work has been presented in North America and abroad. She studied Art History at the University of Toronto and holds an MFA in Creative Practice from the Transart Institute through Plymouth University in the UK. Kate lives with her family on the Black River in Washago.
Kate Hilliard
Artistic Director
Jeanette Heywood
General Manager
Jeanette Heywood brings more than 25 years of charitable sector leadership to her role as General Manager of Arts Orillia. Since joining the organization in 2023, she has strengthened its operational foundation through disciplined budgeting, financial processes, strategic planning, and team collaboration. Working closely with Artistic Director Kate Hilliard, Jeanette helps translate Arts Orillia’s vision into programming that delivers meaningful arts experiences for youth and the broader community. As Principal of The Other Half Consultants Inc., she has guided organizations in sustainability, strategy, fundraising, and impact communications. A collaborative leader and certified coach, Jeanette remains an active contributor to the charitable sector through AFP Central Ontario and Imagine Canada’s Standards Program.
Sean Rees is a graphic designer specializing in typeface design, branding, and website design. He has made work for companies and individuals in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Sean is also a University Professor in Graphic and Web Design teaching branding, typography, user experience, web design, and drawing. Sean also has an art practice in graphic design, drawing, photography and fabric art. He's shown in galleries in the U.S., Canada, and Germany.
Sean Rees
Design Manager
Alondra Vega
Artistic Producer
Cuban-born Alondra Vega-Zaldivar is a passionate artist that has learned many skills by wearing many hats. Composer, opera-singer, producer, and teacher, she joined the Arts Orillia team thanks to the Metcalf Internship and is now Artistic Producer.
Alondra is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre, as well as member of the Ontario Region Board, and part of the ACC committee. Her pieces have been performed across Canada, the United States and reaching as far as Croatia. She is currently working on a new family opera based on the legend of lake Simcoe’s ‘Kempenfelt Kelly.’
Alondra teaches piano and vocals at Modern Music, and in her free time, she Music Directs for South Simcoe Theatre.
Meet the Arts Orillia Board!
Anna Proctor
Chair
Anna Proctor was born to a musician mother and English professor father, in the then, “wilds” of North Toronto. She decamped to Orillia in 1987 with her fiancé, and subsequently brought three children into the world, while living in Hawkestone, Washago, and Orillia, in turns. In those last almost 40 years, her husband died, she homeschooled her children to post-secondary age, and worked a myriad of different “jobs”, including writer, publisher, editor, arts manager, communications coordinator, and marketing advisor. She is now happily settled with her partner, local artist and woodturner Xavier Fernandes. Her passion is supporting people and organizations in the arts, and talking up the Orillia area to anyone who will listen. She is thrilled to be on the board of Arts Orillia and supporting this truly excellent organization.
Fred is a retired English teacher and department head for the Simcoe County District School Board. He was president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation twice during his teaching career. Fred’s lifelong dedication to education and learning is evident in his community work. In 2006 Fred was a member of the Orillia Mayor’s Task Force whose work brought Lakehead University to Orillia. He is the former president of the Kiwanis Club of Orillia and of the Orillia Vocal Ensemble, a community choir. He has recently taken up the volunteer role of Treasurer for Sustainable Orillia, a Mayor’s Task Force. He and his wife Lois live in Oro-Medonte.
Fred Larsen
Former Chair / Director
Laura Clark
Director
Laura is a social innovation practitioner with a flair for experience design, creative production, strategy, and communications. She's worked in live performance as a professional stage manager, production manager, and playwright for over ten years.
In addition to her creative pursuits, Laura works in the global development and tech industries to support progressive businesses. She's worked with the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Ghana, Doctors Without Borders, the MaRS Discovery District, and the Ontario Centre for Innovation. She strives to promote a more sustainable, accessible, and creative world.
Stevie Baker is a producer, director and costume designer based in Severn, Ontario. A prolific theatre creator and artist, she has been a part of innumerable productions in Toronto’s vibrant theatre community over the past 15 years. Stevie has been the Head of Production at Dauntless City Theatre since its inception in 2007 (originally Urban Bard). Her work with Dauntless is rooted in queering, subverting and modernizing Shakespeare to better reflect the dynamic people of Ontario. She centers queer joy, anti-racism and anti-poverty in her work, life and the raising of her two children. Stevie has worked internationally with Kansas City’s MET and served as Artistic Director of The Daegu Theatre Troupe in Daegu, South Korea. She orchestrated the DTT’s first touring show and directed South Korea’s first English language production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
Stevie Baker
Director
Rex Deverell
Director
Rex is a socially engaged playwright and librettist, born in Toronto, raised in Orillia and now splitting his time between the two. He is a graduate of McMaster University and Union Theological Seminary (NYC) in Theatre and Theology. He has been writer in residence for the Globe Theatre (Regina), the University of Windsor, and the Blyth Festival. His work has been translated into five languages. Rex was a founding member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and has served as its president. In 1978 Rex won the Canadian Authors Award for Boiler Room Suite, his most widely produced play.
Marg Schreurs-Kelly is a retired social worker and play therapist. She has devoted her career to working with children, youth and their families in the field of child protection, developmental services, youth crisis and for the last 15 years of her career, as a therapist at the Regional Centre for Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect at Orillia Soldier’s Memorial Hospital. Marg received an Attorney General’s Victim Services Award of Distinction and was named Orillia’s Citizen of the Year in 2014 for her passionate work that led to the 2014 opening of the Child and Youth Advocacy Centre of Simcoe. Marg holds a BSW from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson Polytechnical Institute) and a Master’s Degree from University of Windsor as a Certified Play Therapist. She volunteers with Huruma Children’s Home, Nairobi Kenya and serves as a Board Member for Huruma Trust Canada (Collingwood). Marg joined the Arts Orillia Board of Directors in 2024. She and her husband have raised their family and have lived in Orillia for over 35 years.
Marg Schreurs-Kelly
Director
Ashley Kirkwood
Director
Dr. Ashley Kirkwood is an obstetrician and gynecologist in Orillia, ON. She provides accessible and high-quality care to the community. Her practice encompasses a wide range of women's health issues, including pregnancy, childbirth, and reproductive health, serving women of all ages, including those in prenatal and postnatal stages. A native of London, Ontario, with a BSc in Chemistry from Western University, Dr. Kirkwood graduated with an MD from St. George's University in 2011 and completed her residency at Jersey City Medical Center in Jersey City, NJ in 2015. She practiced in Indiana as a board-certified physician until 2023, before returning to Ontario. Ashley enjoys walking her golden retriever, Henry, music of all kinds, and a quiet afternoon with a good book. She is delighted to have joined the board of Arts Orillia and is excited to advocate on behalf of the organization’s mission to bring art of all varieties to the youth of our community.
Sheri Nicholls is an English teacher and Department Chair for the Simcoe County District School Board. In this field, she strives to encourage youth as they enrich their lives through literature and writing. She has worked on projects for the Ministry of Education (Course Profile Writer, OSSLC Teacher Resource), and for OSSTF in support of Education and teachers. For over 25 years, she has choreographed musical productions with Mariposa Arts Theatre, enriching Orillia’s Art scene. As an advocate for the arts, she supports youth initiatives through dance, writing, and education, inspiring generations to express themselves boldly and authentically.
Sheri Nicholls
Director
Meet the Indigenous Advisory Council!
Keesic Douglas
Artist
Keesic Douglas is an Ojibway artist from Rama First Nation. His practice utilizes photography, video and performance focusing on themes of exploring history, identity, representation, and the environment through an Indigenous perspective. Keesic’s work has been exhibited both across Canada and internationally. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions in Winnipeg, Toronto and recently the Orillia Museum of Art & History as well as group exhibitions in Budapest, Prague, Mexico, Vancouver, Montreal,Toronto and New York City. In 2009 his video War Pony screened at the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany. His short film The Vanishing Trace won best short documentary at the imagineNATIVE Film Festival in 2007. In the summer of 2014, his work was exhibited as part of Before and After the Horizon: Anishnabek Artists of the Great Lakes at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Keesic graduated with a BFA from OCAD in 2008 where he won the medal for photography and completed his MFA at UBC in Vancouver BC in 2010.
Danielle Big Canoe Snake is a prominent Indigenous librarian, cultural organizer, and community advocate based in Orillia, Ontario. She serves as the Library Coordinator and Children's Library Programmer for the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, where she is highly respected for her work in youth literacy and cultural revitalization.
Danielle Big Canoe Snake
Curator / Librarian
Our Commitments
DEI Statement
An intrinsic part of our mission, vision, and values is our commitment to provide opportunities that are equitable, diverse, and inclusionary. We seek to celebrate and lift up our community and everyone in it through the arts.
Privacy & Use of Information Policy Statement
This policy outlines Arts Orillia’s commitment to respecting the privacy of personal information of individual persons and explains how we collect, use, protect and disclose of personal information. This includes the personal information of applicants, program providers, donors, prospective donors, board members, volunteers, and our staff. This policy governs the activities of Arts Orillia.
Arts Orillia is a fully incorporated, autonomous charity.
