Project leadership, partnerships and storytelling
From first pitch to public launch
This selection of projects from across my career, showcases the range of what I do:
identifying opportunities, developing creative solutions, managing budgets and contracts, strategic planning, leadership, building partnerships, coordinating teams and vendors, producing content and media, engaging communities, and bringing projects from concept to completion.
Surrey on Screen -
Industry Showcase
Led end-to-end production, team leadership: strategy, vendor management, design, content and studio partnerships for this exclusive collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery. Secured over 80 assets from iconic locally filmed show like: Superman & Lois, Supernatural, Smallville, and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and secured a Paramount Pictures Jim Carrey costume. Led all project phases, creative team, and oversaw the production of original video content featuring interviews with local film industry professionals.
Ancient Peru Unearthed - North American Premiere
As Project Coordinator and Content Director, I led operations, content strategy, and subsequent national tour in partnership with the Government of Peru and international experts. I ran the project budget, wrote contracts with legal, supported corporate fundraising pitches, and coordinated logistics and complex negotiations between stakeholders. I designed the content themes, oversaw the bilingual publication, and additionally managed external vendors for the video, audio tours, and VIP event. I also built partnerships with the University of Calgary’s Latin American Studies department and local Archaeology Society
Our Colours Our Stories: Identity Tapestry
In partnership with the lead brand strategist at HCMA Architecture + Design I developed this feature exploring the origins of the museum’s new brand colours which drew on textile traditions from diverse communities represented in the collection.
To engage the public I created an Identity Tapestry. This participatory installation is designed to help visitors connect with the space, and each other.
One visitor shared her emotional experience, noting this was the first time she ever felt seen and represented in a museum space.
Founders Gallery - A Multi-Stakeholder Capital Project
Tasked with creating a new 5,000-square-foot gallery from concept to full operation, I built its mission, vision, branding, policies, and programming, while overseeing development and launch.
Faced with a major donor's ambitious vision for a Group of Seven launch exhibition and 12 month timeline, I negotiated a landmark partnership with the Canadian War Museum. I also secured $60,000 in grant funding, established a three-year exhibition program, and initiated a paid television campaign that increased attendance by 150%.
PASSAGE: Transforming Space
Tasked with helping New Urban Development win the support of the Calgary, AB, arts community, I conceived and developed PASSAGE. This 50-foot corridor in a mixed-use redevelopment was transformed into a distinctive public experience. To achieve the client's goal, I created a name, a brand identity and a guiding concept creating a new engaging destination at the site, while creating opportunities for artists to exhibit and sell their work.
BEES!
Local Story & Revenue Maker
Conceived a sustainable, 2,500 sq. ft. interactive production with national touring potential, transforming a timely environmental topic into a revenue-generating asset. Built cross-sector partnerships, secured exhibition bookings, negotiated contracts, and managed multi-city logistics, extending organizational visibility and generating rental revenue over a three-year national tour.
Aligned the key theme with an actual sustainable eco-designed infrastructure. Managed the end-to-end operations, from cross-sector partnerships and client acquisition to contract negotiation, video production and multi-city shipping logistics.
Being Punjabi: Putting Community Stories First
I led this award-winning, community project, amplifying dozens of Punjabi-Canadian voices with a multidisciplinary project team. My magazine-style content strategy credited 14 community contributors as authors. I coordinated complex bilingual translation and typography workflows, community artifact loans, and directed and edited ten original documentary films. The project won two provincial awards and secured a $150,000 Digital Museums Canada grant to scale the project to a wider audience via an interactive digital platform.
Surrey Stories - Digital Museum of Canada Project
Secured $150K funding by leveraging user-experience (UX) design frameworks to draft the initial project proposal. As Project Manager, directed Phases 1 and 2 of this three-year digital initiative in collaboration with extensive internal team, community advisors, and a contracted web design agency. Supported the competitive RFP procurement process with the corporate business affairs team, managed end-to-end budget allocation, and executed a multimedia content strategy featuring interactive mapping and short-form video storytelling targeted at youth audiences.
IAIN BAXTER& - Art in a Flash
For the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, AB., I recognized an opportunity to connect the Glenbow Museum's collection with internationally acclaimed conceptual artist IAIN BAXTER& through his little-known Calgary roots. I initiated a professional relationship that led to an exclusive exhibition.
To make an accompanying publication possible without the cost of a traditional catalogue, I developed an innovative solution: a collectible flash-publication. This eco‑friendly, limited‑edition object was housed in a Mason jar, inspired by BAXTER&'s iconic Animal Preserve artwork. This autographed, limited edition collectible Flash-publication turned a limitation into a creative, revenue-generating opportunity.
Surrey on Screen exhibition
Creative Production Lead | Museum of Surrey
I led the ideation, strategy, and development of a major exhibition highlighting Surrey’s growing film industry, reframing local creative identity through storytelling and community engagement. After pitching the concept, I built partnerships with the City of Surrey Film Office, Heritage Collection, and local BIA, and negotiated collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount.
Through an exclusive partnership with the Warner Bros. Archive, I secured the loan of more than 50 production artifacts and negotiated studio support covering international shipping and the participation of two Warner archive technicians — a significant cost offset for the project. Highlights included a custom sizzle reel of locally filmed productions and a feature artifact from Paramount — Jim Carrey’s Sonic the Hedgehog costume — secured through careful negotiations alongside the Warner partnership. Working with my team, we also developed hands-on experiences such as a green screen activity and produced original video interviews with diverse industry professionals.
The project strengthened industry relationships, elevated awareness of Surrey as a film hub, and created an engaging, accessible learning experience for visitors.
Superman costume from Superman & Lois, Warner Bros. Archive.
Photo Courtesy of Steve Bednash.
A People's Museum: Mural Wall Project
From Idea to Iconic Install
Upon joining the Museum of Surrey, I noticed the vast 45-by-30-foot atrium wall presented an untapped opportunity. I felt it could be used to align with one of the museum's goals - to create "wow" experiences. The overall image is of a local river, inspired by an Indigenous Elder's words about rivers as places of connection. He also said rivers were the place of arrival for newcomers, and the custom was to ask permission of the resident Nation when arriving at a new place. The image symbolically requests permission to the three land-based Nations of Surrey, and connects the museum's 2 levels. It leads visitors to second floor galleries, including the Nations led Indigenous Hall.
I proposed, sourced suppliers and content, and oversaw the development of this large-scale photo mural. It is designed to reflect the community it serves - the people of the museum. The mural is made up of 44,000 individual portraits of the people of Surrey.
This project supported the museum’s new mission to be "The Best People Museum In Canada" and required aligning stakeholders, sourcing and negotiating with an international designer in the Netherlands, coordinating a community-wide photo collection, and partnering with a local printer (Uno Digital) to deliver an unprecedented technically complex installation. The final mural, is composed of more than 44,000 contemporary and archival images. It blends storytelling, representation, and interactive discovery. Local people are literally seen IN the museum.
The mural has become a signature feature of the museum. It drew more than 10,000 visitors at reopening and continues to foster a strong sense of belonging and engagement within the community.
Being Punjabi: Unfolding the Surrey Story
Community Building & Project Leadership
I spearheaded the end-to-end production of this landmark project for Museum of Surrey which reframed the narrative for Western Canada’s largest Punjabi community. The project was built on a foundation of "Radical Inclusion" a move beyond the traditional institutional perspective. I wanted to create an experience authentically authored by the community in their own voice. To achieve this, I pioneered a technique for exhibit text panels modeled after magazine editorials; fourteen community leaders authored the texts and each received individual recognition through personal biographies. Every panel appeared in English and Gurmukhi script, with selections in Shahmukhi to be representative.
This vision required the management of complex technical and linguistic workflows. I oversaw the hiring of translators, coordinated community verification checks, and arranged for the transcription of texts into Unicode to support the custom typography required by our design partner, Skyrocket Digital. To build the trust required for artifact loans, I personally led engagement sessions at six sites across Surrey. I also served as a key project Content Producer, overseeing the shoot and personally editing 10 films that featured authentic perspectives from the community.
The exhibition won two BC Museums Association awards: the People's Choice for Best Exhibit and the Award for Excellence in Community Engagement. I subsequently took the initiative to scale this success, successfully securing a $150,000 Digital Museums of Canada grant to transition the physical exhibit into a permanent digital storytelling legacy.
Project Leadership, Community engagement, Content, Co-Design, Team Coordination, Vendor Management, Video Production, with event and marketing support. Coordinated bilingual production in English and Gurmukhi.
Ancient Peru Unearthed
Content & Coordination
North American Premiere | The Nickle Arts Museum
I served as Curator and Exhibition Coordinator for the North American premiere of Ancient Peru Unearthed, an international exhibition featuring more than $26 million in priceless artifacts. What began as a curatorial role expanded into coordination across multiple areas of development and production for this complex exhibition and touring project.
Working closely with a multidisciplinary museum team, I shaped and wrote exhibition content and interpretive materials for this bilingual exhibition, and oversaw multimedia production, commissioning an audio tour from a specialist vendor and co-produced an original exhibition video. I coordinated external collaborators including designers, model builders, and technical vendors, and contributed to educational programming, special events, and custom merchandise developed to extend the learning experience beyond the gallery.
The project required significant international coordination and negotiation. In collaboration with partners in Peru, I helped develop and negotiate the exhibition agreement with the Republic of Peru, coordinated contributor agreements, and supported the planning and coordination of the national tour, including venue partnerships and logistics.. The exhibition included a high-profile diplomatic opening attended by Canadian and Peruvian officials, fundraising initiatives, and a bilingual publication for which I authored an essay examining the ethical and cultural consequences of artifact looting.
This work strengthened my ability to design multimodal learning experiences and contribute to complex cross-cultural projects involving international loans, large collections, and national distribution.
Direction work for Ancient Peru Production Publication. Ceramic blackware double spouted vessel depicting the Sican deity. Photo Y Yoshii/PAS, edit by CLEANPIX, from Ancient Peru Unearthed Sican publication- ISBN-13:978-0-88953-306-6
Forming and Launching The Founders' Gallery
Problem Solving and Opportunity Making
A case study in building a cultural program from the ground up. This project tracks the transformation of a vision into a 5000 sq. ft. operational reality, The Founders Gallery of Art and Heritage at The Military Museums in Calgary, Alberta. For this art gallery on its inception, I pioneered a storytelling model uniting fine art, artifacts, and archival material to connect military and art audiences.
Seconded from the University of Calgary, I was tasked to oversee the development of the institution’s art program from concept to full operation, including advising on the build and facility requirements.
Working largely independently in the early phase, I defined the gallery’s mission, brand identity, policies, and programming framework while hiring and coordinating technical staff and establishing operational standards. This included developing collections and loan procedures, designing storage and loading dock, and advocating for the facility to comply with Category “A” museum standards required for major national loans.
My inaugural exhibition, Art in the Service of War: The Emergent Group of Seven, demonstrated a storytelling approach that united fine art, artifacts, and archival material. I secured significant works by iconic Group of Seven artists and presented these alongside objects and archival material drawn from each of the regimental army collections, Archive, Navy, and Air Force museums within The Military Museums. This was done intentionally to bridge art and military history audiences and to amplify the lived experience of the war artists and the works they created.
The premiere exhibition responded to a lead donor’s vision that the gallery open with Group of Seven art. To solve this, I leveraged a federal government need to have assets seen in regional locations.
Through a major negotiation and loan partnership with the Canadian War Museum, I secured paintings, and rare works on paper by the artists later to become The Group of Seven. Works on paper had not been on display since 1924 as part of Lord Beaverbrook’s First World War art program.
The collaboration led to a published conference paper, "The New Triple A – Art, Archive and Artefact at The
Military Museums: Lessons and Implications from a Converged Environment" by Colleen Sharpe and John Wright. I co-presented this at the Fourth Annual Conference of the Arts, Venice.
My final act as Curator was in making a request, proposal and negotiation with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to secure a World Trade Center artifact for The Military Museums, commemorating Canadians lost on September 11. This significant addition to the museum was made possible through the vision, advisement, and recommendation of Canadian war artist Dick Averns, who carried the project through to final installation.
(Right) National Treasures secured through my initiative and negotiation.