New Development Assistant and New Intern at CAFKA

CAFKA is pleased to announce the appointment of Sophie Côté as part-time Development Assistant. The Development Assistant position at CAFKA has been made possible with a grant from the Creative Enterprise Initiative of the Waterloo Region.

Sophie is a native of Quebec City, and is currently working toward a double major in Economics and Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo. Sophie has received numerous scholarships and awards including the Loran Award, the Canadian Merit Scholarship and the TD Canada Trust award and, this past summer she received a summer employment scholarship to work as Urban Development Junior Researcher for the Martin Prosperity Institute in Toronto.

Sophie’s research on urban diseconomies of scale in Latin America for the Martin Prosperity Institute continued her interest in art and urban economies. Sophie is an elected member of the board of the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group and she has worked as a development assistant for Artscape in a fundraising campaign to develop an abandoned school into art facility for homeless youth in downtown Toronto.

In addition to her research experience Sophie has broad working experience in the arts as a summer assistant to the publisher of cmagazine as well working as a personal assistant to Toronto-based sculptor Lyla Rye. Sophie also worked as an Assistant Technical Designer for Robert Lepage’s company ExMachina in the production of the opera Der Ring des Nibelungen for the NYC’s Metropolitain Opera 2011 program.

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CAFKA is also thrilled to welcome back Natalie Romano as part of CAFKA’s team. Natalie is completing an internship as part of her MA in Visual Art & Culture at the University of Western Ontario. She worked closely with CAFKA as a volunteer in the production of Mammalian Diving Reflex’s Faith Exchange which was presented as part of CAFKA.11: SURVIVE. RESIST.

Natalie has a keen interest in art in public space. Her thesis looks at the impact of public art on communities, especially marginalized ones.  

In addition to her activities with CAFKA, Natalie has worked as an intern at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. She also worked as an intern on the installation of Steven Shearer’s exhibition in the Canadian Pavillion at the Venice Biennale in 2011 with the National Gallery of Canada. Natalie will be working with CAFKA until December 2012.