Student & Alumni Showcase

From Barbados to Toronto: A journey in photography

Alexandra Gooding turned her teenage passion for photography into a career dream when she landed the curatorial assistant position at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Gooding was hired as the curatorial assistant in the AGO’s new Department of Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora, to work on the department's inaugural exhibition Fragments of Epic Memory, (external link)  a visual exploration into the Caribbean and its diaspora, from the period following emancipation through today.

Appointed Special Collections Curatorial Specialist at Toronto Metropolitan University Library.

Olivia oversees the preservation and access of the Toronto Metropolitan University's Library (opens in new window)  special physical and digital collections. In sharing her passion for audiovisual heritage, web archives and primary source research, she strives to mack archival spaces and cultural heritage studies more accessible and inclusive for BIPOC students and researchers. Prior to this role, she was an Archivist at TVO and the Digital Asset Manager at Air Canada. 

Olivia holds an MA in Film and Photography Preservation & Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University and a BA in Communication Studies from Concordia University. Olivia is on the board of the Breakthroughs Film Festival and a member of the AMIA Film Advocacy Task Force. 

Appointed as the Research & Collections Assistant, Marvin Gelber Print and Drawing Study Centre.

This new position bridges the two main collecting areas that occupy and operate the Marvin Gelber Print & Drawing Study Centre (external link, opens in new window) , Photography and Prints and Drawings. Emily will work in collaboration with curators, conservators, and registration and collections management staff, and participate in mounting exhibitions, in the research of proposed acquisitions, and in the organization and maintenance of the collections of prints, drawings and photographs in the vault. She will also coordinate the activities of the Study Centre, and assist with the supervision and training of the departments’ interns and fellows, and the Study Centre volunteers.

Gold Medal Award winner 2019

Multiple award-winner: In addition to being a Gold Medal-winner, Kira Brown was awarded the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and Michael Smith awards for a thesis project to preserve a work by a Canadian First Nations artist that was the first virtual reality work of art exhibited in the National Gallery.

Publication: Journal of Film Preservation, October 2019

Report on Eye Filmmuseum and Haghefilm Digitaal's restoration of "Gräfin Küchenfee," a formerly lost German silent film written by Robert Wiene and starring Henny Porten, has been published in the latest issue of FIAF's Journal of Film Preservation. (external link, opens in new window) 

The report was written as part of Emery's master thesis,

Awarded the Jennifer Mactavish Graduate Student Leadership Award 

The Jennifer Mactavish Graduate Student Leadership Awards are given to students for their commitment to engagement, collaboration and leadership in the Toronto Metropolitan University graduate student community.

Appointed Digital Consultant,  The Family Camera Network

Julienne Pascoe, a 2009 graduate of the Photographic Preservation and Collections Management (PPCM) program, has been appointed Digital Consultant for the Digital Archive Team of The Family Camera Network (external link, opens in new window)  for which the F+PPCM program is a partner institution.

Appointed Gary and Ellen Davis Curator of Photography, Johnson Museum, Cornell University

Kate is completing her Ph.D. in Art History at the University of Toronto, where she has taught introductory and advanced undergraduate courses on the history and theory of photography. Her research on photography, printmaking, and publishing in the mid-nineteenth century has appeared or is forthcoming in the journals History of Photography and Photographies, the Rijksmuseum’s Studies in Photography series, and the exhibition catalogue Dispatch: War Photographs in Print, 1854–2008. From 2015–16, she was a Manfred and Hanna Heiting Fellow at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and in 2017 was a curatorial assistant in the Department of Photographs at the musée d’Orsay, Paris. Her most recent curatorial project, Édouard Baldus: The Louvre Folios, 1855–57, opened at the Art Gallery of Ontario in October 2017. Kate graduated from our PPCM program in 2013.

Cutline: The Photography Archives of The Globe and Mail

One of the 20 primary shows of the 2016 Scotiabank Contact photography festival, Cutline: The Photography Archives of The Globe and Mail is co-curated by FPPCM graduates Jill Offenbeck (2009) and Stefani Petrilli (2005) along with Roger Hargreaves. 

Read more about the Cutline exhibition in The Globe and Mail (external link, opens in new window) .

Chicago Film Archives

"The First Degree," a long-lost silent film, discovered at Chicago Film archives. CBS News story (external link, opens in new window) . You can read more about the film and how it ended up in the collection in this blog post (external link, opens in new window) .

Appointed Special Collections Librarian, Toronto Metropolitan University

After working as Curatorial Specialist, Alison Skyrme as been recently appointed as Special Collections Librarian at the Toronto Metropolitan University Library.  Alison is a 2007 alumnus of the Photographic Preservation and Collections Management (PPCM) program, and has been an active instructor with the program for several years. She specializes in collections management and documentation in the heritage sector and has over 15 years of collections experience in galleries, libraries, archives and museums.

Appointed Curatorial Assistant, Art of Global Africa and the Diaspora; Montgomery Collection/Fragments of Epic Memory Exhibition, Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)

Born and raised in Barbados, Alexandra’s research focuses on enhancing discoverability of Circum-Caribbean materials in institutional collections and analysing the photographic representations of the region and its constituent nations. She presented her thesis research at the 2019 Museums Association of the Caribbean’s annual conference in Martinique and was an invited panelist for the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Study Day(s) for the Montgomery Collection of Caribbean Photographs. She was awarded a 2020 Howard Tanenbaum Fellowship at The Image Centre and is slated to present her research at the 2021 Archives Association of Ontario conference.

In her role at the AGO, Alexandra will be working with departmental curator Julie Crooks on the Montgomery Collection's forthcoming exhibition and publication. Alexandra graduated from our program in 2020.