“After a rewarding leadership call and interview process in the Fall of 2023, we are thrilled to be welcoming Nikki to the Generator team. Over the past few weeks of onboarding we have already benefited from Nikki’s vast arts & culture and leadership experience, in addition to the knowledge she brings as an artist and producer who has been in Generator’s orbit since 2017. We have fallen into an energized workflow within the newly solidified co-leadership model and are inspired by the direction that Generator is moving in. We can’t wait to share our programming and long term plans with you all soon! Join us in welcoming Nikki to the team.”
“This moment in the performing arts, filled with both challenge and opportunity, has drawn me to join the Generator team in this new role of Director of Programming. I’m excited to collaborate with Bianca and Patricia and co-lead Generator into a new chapter, building on its vital legacy of supporting arts workers, and finding new and impactful ways to nurture values-led producing practice, and progressive, sustainable sector change.”
Nikki Shaffeeullah Bio:
Nikki Shaffeeullah (she/her) is a theatre & film artist, producer, facilitator, equity worker, and community organizer. She has a rich background in community-engaged arts, which she weaves into her creative practice as a producer and performance-maker.
Nikki’s work has included serving as Artistic Director of The AMY Project; Editor-in-Chief of alt.theatre: cultural diversity and the stage; and Assistant Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre. Nikki visioned, curated, and produced Stages of Transformation with National Arts Centre – English Theatre: a three-year artistic research project exploring what theatre can learn from abolition movements. Nikki leads sector-change research and training projects through her organization Undercurrent Creations. She is a founding member of Confluence Arts Collective, a group of artists-activists who believe in transformative justice and a world without prisons. Nikki has held artistic residencies with organizations including Canadian Stage, Why Not Theatre, The Theatre Centre, and SummerWorks. Nikki holds an MFA in Community-Engaged Theatre from the University of Alberta, where her thesis won the Canadian Association for Theatre Research award for Intercultural Theatre. She has taught and directed in several university performance departments.
Nikki’s work and as an artist and artistic leader has been recognized many times, including with the Patrick Connor Award, and nominations for the Pauline Gibbon Award and the Ontario Arts Foundation Artist-Educator Award. A queer Indo-Caribbean artist born and living on Dish With One Spoon territory, Nikki believes that art should disrupt the status quo, centre the margins, engage with the ancient, dream of the future, and be for everyone.