We first announced Kristina’s intention to step down from her role as Lead Producer way back in October 2020. The long and deeply-considered transition process that has taken place since has included work with our 2021 Strategic Advisors, and culminated in the hiring of Michael Caldwell as incoming leadership in Fall 2021.
As 2022 begins and Kristina marks five years with Generator, she has fully stepped back from the day-to-day operations at the organization. For Kristina, as well as Sedina and Keshia, we know that shifting out of a staff role is not a goodbye: it’s a transition into a different form of engagement with Generator.
We’re so excited to see the many ways our paths will all continue to intersect—and we’re delighted to take the opportunity now to celebrate the transformative impact of Kristina’s leadership at Generator.
A note from Kristina
It has been just over five years that I have been working at Generator, and longer still that I have been in relationship with this wonderful organization and the folks connected to it in the past and present. I have deeply resisted the urge to list every single person who I have worked with and have been inspired and changed by (there are far too many) - I am truly in awe of all the people, ideas, and connections that have been made throughout this time.
Keshia, Sedina, and Kristina at the 2019 Wrecked summer party
I am so proud of the work we have done. We’ve changed stuff and stuff has changed. Toronto and Canada’s performance community is ready for new ideas (or old ideas in new contexts) about what it means to be an artist producer, and I am so glad to step aside and let that all happen. I mean, I am not leaving, leaving - I will still deliver Financial Literacy programs, remain a support to those I mentor, and offer opinions whenever asked. This is a very new time for the performing arts, and I’m thrilled that Generator has the gift of a fresh start with new people to bring forward what is needed.
When Michael Wheeler called me on a Fall evening in 2016 with the idea that I should leave my life as an independent producer in Vancouver and move to Toronto, I was in Wet’suwet’en territory working on a public art project about salmon migration with Miriam Colvin. It was hard for me to imagine a change of that magnitude. As I sat with the idea, I became excited about the possibilities of what could be done with an organization with funding and staffing, and a community around it. As an independent producer, I had already declared the next five years of my life to be the years of knowledge transfer (arbitrarily set to end in 2022). I had been coaching a handful of artists on how to produce their own work through my Scaffold project.
With Generator I imagined that the ideas I was playing with could have a far wider reach than what I could accomplish alone.
Michael Wheeler wanted to put the means of production into the hands of the artists. We continued that idea by working to arm arts workers with the tools of capitalism. Andrea Donaldson gave me a term for what Generator does: harm reduction. The work of Generator has been a balance between helping folks be better equipped within the systems they cannot escape until the fall of capitalism (CRA, public funders, presenter industrial complex), and not locking them into those systems so that they can dream of a different way forward. This tension’s a tricky one - if there’s a way to get it right, I don’t think we’ve found it yet.
L-R: Kristina, Keshia, Sedina, Audrey, and Annie at the January 2020 Winter Warm-up Generator Generations gathering
Kristina at an August 2019 ‘Making Space for Conflict and Dialogue' workshop at SummerWorks Exchange, in partnership with Generator’s Transform Dance project
Kristina at the CSI Spadina office, featuring headshots and bios of all the Artist Producer Training, Resident Company, and Company Collaborator participants for 2017/18
Some things I/we did that I am so proud of:
In five years we completely transformed who Generator served. We went from an almost exclusively theatre (often scripted works), almost all white client base to a multidisciplinary performance organization serving folks from opera to dance to theatre to community based work, and we now see representation across race, gender, sexuality, ability and many intersections therein.
Every single part of the leadership transition process - from the Strategic Advisors, Call for Submissions, Hiring Process, Onboarding Process, to where we are right now. A huge amount of time, thoughtfulness, and labour went into this process. There were a lot of ideas and voices, but the end result was transformative. And it caught the attention of Tim Cynova (from Fractured Atlas - I’m such a fangirl), leading to an interview with ted, Sedina, and I for his podcast. (Over the next few months the Generator blog will uncover our transition work further.)
Let go of the idea of ‘best practices’. I really got this idea from Jane Marsland, who is one of the most bad-ass thinkers/doers in arts management, maybe ever. Just as there is no one way to make your artwork, there is no one way to run your company. Make your administrative practices as creative as your artistic practices - these should not be separate processes, but parallel ones. Knowing the system you are feeding into and finding your own way there has been a big part of how we teach at Generator, and how we run the organization.
I didn’t want a 9 to 5. I like to do too many things, in too many places. With the team, we found ways to keep the freedom and flexibilities we experience as freelancers going in salaried positions, while including Wellness Funds, Professional Development, and ways for us all to keep up our independent performance practices. As a team, we weaved in and out of different ways of working, different locations, and different schedules, all through a lens of care.
Katie Leamen and I worked with Jane Marsland (again because she is so rad) to write the first draft of the Principles and Culture statement. This statement went through many, many iterations with input from staff, board, community as things evolved. But the principles and culture statement has served as a touchpoint and a way to check in with what we were, and are, doing.
I just can’t believe what we have done in the six years since STAF became Generator. I asked Annie and Keshia to make sure we wrote it all down, so we now have annual reports dating back to 2015/16. This is where you can read all the names of the many, many individuals who have worked, learned, and dreamed with us. It has been so fun to take the time each year to reflect and laugh at what has happened and who we have engaged with - somehow we always end up surprised by how much we were able to get done, and all that there is to celebrate.
A 2018 potluck gathered members of the Resident Companies and Company Collaborators
The Strategic Advisors Welcome Meal on Zoom in April 2021, with staff, board members, and the seven Strategic Advisors
Kristina (centre) with Keshia (right) and Susanna Fournier (left), who produced the Empire Trilogy in residence with Generator
I have been inspired by:
The team at Generator - there have been many amazing staff over my tenure. The support and camaraderie over the last three years of Annie, Keshia, Sedina, Audrey, and Natasha has been so vital to my personal growth and nourishment. The dynamism of this team brought us to places none of us could have imagined - as all good collaboration should. I wrote some notes of appreciation about Sedina and Keshia (as they have transitioned their formal roles at Generator) here. Annie, Audrey, and Natasha: I appreciate you so much and look forward to continuing to work with you.
All the artists I got to talk to. I got to hear your dreams, help shape how you shared them, and watch the outcome. It takes such courage to reach out and share what you have been thinking about and to be open to learning something new. Words cannot express how honoured I am to have been asked to be a part of those dreams (for however long or short a time).
One-size-fits-one. Michael Wheeler brought this idea into Generator and he got it from JD Derbyshire. This has been a core tenet of all we’ve done as an organization and such a perfect metaphor for the world we want to live in. Living up to the promise is hard (maybe impossible) work, and so rewarding.
By far the most impactful learning for me was the work we did in and with transformative justice, from our sector-wide Transform Dance project to our own accountability process with Zainab Amadahy and the Equity & Justice Organizational Review. This work taught me about responsibility and sticking through tough times, how accountability is slippery and sticky, and most of all that you don’t have to be in relationship with those who participated or experienced harm to heal. I am so grateful to Sedina for bringing these concepts and creators into Generator.
Kristina with Jeremy Mimnagh, Rachel Penny (centre), and Heidi Strauss (right) from Company Collaborator adelheid dance, at the 2019 Wrecked summer party
Kristina at the CSI Bathurst office with the 2018/19 Artist Producer Training cohort
Kristina with (L-R) Katie Leamen (past staff), Emma Westray (APT alum) and Laura Nanni (SummerWorks) in 2017
It has been one of the biggest honours of my life to work with and be trusted with the curiosities, time, and dreams of those who participated in Artist Producer Training and Resident Companies and Company Collaborator programs. Mentorship is a reciprocal relationship and learning is lateral. Thank you for all that you taught me, and know that this is just a shift in how we interact - we will continue to be in relationship. As Sedina and I always said, mentorship is a career-long relationship (i.e. for life).
I am really jazzed that Michael Caldwell is stepping into leadership of Generator. I’ve worked alongside Michael in the dance community for many, many years. He understands so much about how the systems work, has done some amazing thinking and doing throughout his career, and has some really exciting ideas for what can be next for artist producers. Michael, may you hold this work with grace, rest, and care not just for this community but for yourself. I am excited to see what happens next and ready to support it in whatever ways I can.
East Coast living
And for those who are wondering what’s next:
I am now based out of Saint John, New Brunswick, the unceded traditional territory of the Wolastogiyik/Maliseet, the Mi'Kmaq/Mi'kmaw and Passamaquoddy/Peskotomuhkati. As always, I still have a lot of jobs… In addition to my work in the arts, I have two new projects. I am working with joy and play as the CEO of Splashifax and I’m growing my skills and expanding my knowledge working in real estate and commercial (mostly residential) development (in an operations support role). The future is truly unpredictable.
Notes of Appreciation
“game-changing is the phrase that comes to mind, when i reflect on kristina’s impact in toronto. over her five years at generator, kristina has served as a visionary and generous leader, not only for the organization, but for the whole toronto performance scene.
her mentorship has helped to cultivate a vibrant and values-driven next generation of artist-producers, who continue to grow in community together. it’s so exciting watching them take the tools she has offered them to become sector-changers in their own right.
as generator’s leader, she has been a vital voice in toronto’s performance ecology, bringing her signature combination of compassion and stubborn integrity to curating urgent conversations, and sticking up for independent artists. the values and ideas generator has championed with her at the helm have spread far beyond the generator generations—they’ve trickled through the whole ecology. kristina’s tenure has changed the terms of discussion around valuing artists’ labour, work-work-life balance, and claiming agency as an independent artist.
i couldn’t be more proud to have served for this small but mighty organization under her leadership. she has grown generator into the kind of organization i wish had existed when i was first starting out. it’s the reason i got involved with generator’s board in the first place. and true to form, kristina is demonstrating immense care in handing over the reins: the organization is in excellent shape and ready to evolve into a new iteration. i’m tremendously excited to welcome michael and support him as he builds a vision and a team to steer generator into its next chapter, and i’m immensely grateful to kristina for the deep care that has made that future so full of possibility.”
“Kristina has really knocked it out of the park. I’m so proud of the work we did when I was ED at Generator, but truth be told I left a little faster than everyone had hoped. This meant Kristina was taking over an organization that was still in the final stages of transformation. For example, the grant for ArtistProducerResource.com had been written and approved, but no one had made it yet. Or had figured out what it could be concretely, really. Or how to pay for the people to keep it current...
It has given me a lot of joy to watch the organization become something bigger than what was imagined at the community consultations dedicated to the transformation of STAF into whatever it should become. I’ve watched Generator grow into a strong voice for social justice, and a place where the values of equity and inclusion seem entrenched in the raison d’etre of the organization. It also seems now to me as a place that is perceived as an honest broker and impartial advocate for independent artists from multiple disciplines. And because this really matters when your activities don’t generate any revenue, it has grown into an organization supported by operating funding at all three levels of government. This is pretty good Kristina!
Congrats to Michael in his new role. Congrats to Kristina on her superb stewardship. ”
Michael Wheeler (left) and Michael Caldwell (right) with Kristina at a November 2021 gathering
“I have admired Kristina’s work from afar, and now, as I continue to immerse in Generator, I further understand how truly incredible her leadership has been in these last many years. Her attention to detail, the systems that she’s put into place, her care and support for artists — this is all deeply embedded into the fabric of this organization.
I am thrilled to continue a working relationship with Kristina for many more months to come, and I am appreciative of her continued commitment to Generator, and to the many artists that have flowed within, into and through this organization. I wish her the best for her future endeavours, and look forward to celebrating her many forthcoming accomplishments.”
Ryan with Kristina at a performance in New Brunswick in December 2021
“Thank you, Kristina, for your vision, skill, patience, and knowledge! I’m happy to be in the big group of theatre artists who have benefitted from Kristina’s tenure at Generator. Even during the pandemic, her incredible impact still has ripples: it’s possible to see those of us who have learned to be better Artist Producers through Kristina now working at the forefront of digital theatre, all though Indie theatre, at the institutional companies like Stratford and Shaw, and in educational settings like Sheridan and George Brown.
No matter what the future holds for the Arts and culture sector, because of Kristina’s leadership there are people who are ready and committed to help bring about evolution with rigour and care.”
Kristina’s Time at Generator, in (More) Photos
(An attempt to capture some of her many accomplishments, by Annie Clarke)
You can read about everything in more detail in our Annual Reports.
Surprise! Kristina’s first year at Generator coincided with some really frustrating cuts to arts funding—the budget shrank, and she had to reinvent the staffing structure.
Here she is with outgoing Executive Director Michael Wheeler and Director of Coordination & Communications Katie Leamen at #UrgentExchange at TPM in 2017.
2018 was a year of staffing transitions. Sedina, Keshia, and Annie all began (very) part-time roles.
At a September 2018 meeting, the new team met all together for the first time, with outgoing Special Projects Coordinator Lisa Alves (right).
Community events like #UrgentExchange were powerful ways to convene conversation. But we paused them (and public workshops) when less resources meant we needed to do less. Kristina was careful to make sure we always moved at the pace of our staffing capacity.
A January 2018 #UrgentExchange featured a panel discussion with Michael Maranda, Jiv Parasram, and DM St-Bernard (out of frame).
Kristina facilitated or co-facilitated FIVE years of Artist Producer Training programs!
APT 2017/18: (top row) Chiamaka G. Ugwu, Christopher Manousous, Mamito Kukwikila, Michelle Langille, Ruthie Luff, Emma Westray, Kristina; (bottom) Ishai Buchbinder, Maddie Bautista, Katie Leamen (Facilitator), Brian Postalian
APT 2018/19: Kitoko Mai, Teiya Kasahara, Tsholo Khalema, Jordan Campbell, Mikaela Demers, Karthy Chin. Pictured here: Sedina, Kitoko, Karthy and Kristina.
APT 2020/21: (top row) Olivia Shortt, Kristina, Makram Ayache; (middle) Brock Hessel, Rochelle, Sedina; (bottom) Annie and Avery Jean
Social time is community building time, and this was enshrined as a value — we got in three years of friend-raising summer parties on the Pirate Life Toronto boat before Covid ground them to a halt.
Boat Booty Bash in June 2018 with Elenna Mosoff, Sabah Haque, Lisa Alves, Emma Westray, and Quinn Harris
APT past and present gather for the 2017/18 Welcome Cruise.
Wrecked in June 2019 with Sedina, Elenna Mosoff, Claire Burns, Quinn Harris, and Mikaela Demers.
Financial Literacy has evolved into a major focus at Generator, and the demand for the programs has never been higher than throughout the pandemic. Kristina developed and delivers this programming with Audrey Quinn and Natasha Mytnowych, and we hear year after year of its game-changing impact on participants’ lives.
With Natasha and Audrey in 2018
Dozens of artists and producers got support through the Resident Company and Company Collaborator program, a number of whom we first met through APT. Kristina’s mentorship has been in the bones of some of your favourite indie performances in Toronto in recent years, I promise.
A meeting between Resident Companies the AMY Project (Nikki Shaffeeullah, left, and Rachel Penny, out of frame) and House + Body (Emma Westray and Christopher Manousos) in 2018
ArtistProducerResource.com was launched early in Kristina’s tenure, and has absolutely blossomed under her leadership, now reaching around 20,000 users each year. She also launched a Patreon to support the site, which brings in more than $250/month from community backers.
Kristina at the August 2019 Wiki Edit-a-thon as part of the SummerWorks Exchange Info Fair (photo by Andrew Williamson)
Transform Dance was Kristina’s baby—she got the funding, she made this huge project happen, and its ripples are being felt in beautiful ways.
A spring 2020 podcast recording session with Advisory Board members Karen BK Chan, Hirut Melaku, and Douglas Stewart, project coordinator Meg Saxby, and podcast producer Katie Jensen
Kristina got us through the rough early Covid days, from office chair deliveries, to reminders to cut ourselves some slack (on Slack).
Office chair deliveries in April 2020
Kristina put her decades-long frustration with the non-profit board model into a grant application to reimagine governance, and as a result we had the privilege of learning about and thinking through making boards better this past year, alongside longtime collaborators the Toronto Dance Community Love-in and Shakespeare in the Ruff.
Kristina and Annie with Kaitlyn Riordan (top right) and (bottom, L-R) Shelby Wright, Sophie Dow, and Brendan McMurtry-Howlett
“No list is long enough, but this snapshot is a start—and at the end of the day, Kristina’s myriad contributions are most felt not in numbers, statistics, or even Zoom screenshots, but in the forever changed hearts and minds of the many people she has worked with at and through Generator. From all of us: thank you, Kristina.”
About Kristina
Kristina Lemieux is an accomplished arts manager with more than 20 years of professional experience. She is also a contemporary dancer. Raised in Treaty 6 territory (rural Alberta), Kristina lived in Edmonton, attending the University of Alberta, for 10 years before heading to Vancouver where her passion for the arts has driven collaboration, creation, and innovation in the Vancouver arts scene for over a decade. After working with Generator in a freelance capacity for several years, Kristina made the move to Toronto in January 2017 to take on the role of Lead Producer of Generator.
Kristina has worked with many of Vancouver's leading art organizations: Brief Encounters, Arts Umbrella, New Works, Out On Screen (Queer Film Festival), Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration, PTC Playwrights Theatre Centre, Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists/West Chapter (CADA/West), Tara Cheyenne Performance, Made in BC - Dance on Tour, Theatre Replacement, Progress Lab 1422, The Post at 750 (110 Arts Cooperative), Vancouver International Dance Festival (VIDF), Up in the Air Theatre (rEvolver Festival), Music on Main, and Vancouver Art Gallery. She co-founded Polymer Dance, a group dedicated to bringing dance experiences to non-professional dancers. Kristina remains tied to Vancouver through her project Scaffold, a coaching and skill development service designed to support performing artists and groups. She is the co-founder and Creative Producer of F-O-R-M (Festival of Recorded Movement) and works frequently with the Dancers of Damelahamid and Coastal Dance Festival.
Kristina is passionate about generating dialogue in the arts and, to this end, earned a certificate in Dialogue and Civic Engagement from Simon Fraser University. In all that she does she works to support independent artists across performing disciplines in finding ways to make art outside of the currently prescribed modes.