Your Program Team

Irene Chalmers is an interpretive planner with over 25 years of experience in the museum and heritage field.  As a consultant, Irene has planned a wide range of museums and exhibitions for diverse clients including the Manitoba Museum, Parks Canada, Massey Hall, and the Royal Ontario Museum.  She partners regularly with exhibit design firms including Reich + Petch and Holman Exhibits, as well as working directly with museum clients. She has worked as a costumed interpreter at the City of Toronto Museums, in the ROM’s Discovery Gallery, and was Manager of Public Relations at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. As an educator, Irene has developed Exhibit Planning curricula for both the Museums Association of Saskatchewan and the Ontario Museum Association and currently teaches post-degree students in the Museum & Cultural Management program at Centennial College, where she also led an overhaul of the program in 2017. She holds a BA in Anthropology and History from the University of Toronto and a Master of Education from OISE at the University of Toronto.   She completed the OMA Certificate in Museum Studies as well as a Certificate in Public Relations at Ryerson University and a Certificate in Creative Writing at Humber College.

Christophe Jivraj has been involved in the arts in various capacities for over 20 years. He spent 10 years working in the film industry as a props buyer and set designer. Then in the early 2000s he moved to Montreal and completed a Masters in Fine Arts. He remained there for over 10 years working and exhibiting as an artist, while working part time as a Fine Arts educator at Concordia University. More recently he graduated with an MA from Ryerson University’s Photographic Preservation and Collections Management program. He was fortunate enough to pursue internships at The National Gallery in Washington, DC and Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. He is currently employed at the City of Toronto as the Exhibitions Coordinator in Museum and Heritage Services. Christophe loves being both spectator and participant in arts and culture, with a special interest in photography.