EDITORIAL TEAM & ADVISORS 

SAMER ABDELNOUR

Samer Abdelnour is an academic and activist. He works as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh Business School. He studied for his PhD at the London School of Economics. Before that, he spent three years living in London, Ontario, where he got to know Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner; it was also a time when his interest in the intersection of art, culture and political activism came together.
RON BENNER

Ron Benner is an internationally recognized, London, Ontario-based artist whose longstanding practice investigates the history and political economics of food cultures. Ron originally studied agriculture engineering at the University of Guelph. Finding himself ethically opposed to bioengineering, he began to travel and research the politics of plants and food. Ron was one of the founders of the Embassy Cultural House.
ANDREAS BUCHWALDT

Andreas Buchwaldt is a multimedia installation artist and freelance labour activist based in Toronto, currently completing his PhD in Visual Culture at The University of Western Ontario (UWO). A common theme running through Andreas’ practice is an interest in networks, exploring ways objects/sounds/people can interact within organized systems. 
CHARLOTTE EGAN

Charlotte Egan is in her final undergraduate year studying Visual Arts Studio & History at Western University in London, Ontario. She is a visual artist and typically works with acrylic paints, ink, and illustration.  
WYN GELEYNSE

Wyn Geleynse was a member of the Embassy Cultural House (ECH) board and also co-edited the ECH tabloid and curated the film program. Wyn is a multimedia artist living and working in London, Ontario. Considered one of Canada's pioneer film and video projection artists, Geleynse's career spans a period of nearly 40 years.
TARIQ GORDON

Tariq Hassan Gordon was a child of the art community in London, Ontario. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in July 2020, Tariq working with Ron and Jamelie re-envisioned the Embassy Cultural House (ECH) as a virtual art space and website to re-unite the arts community from the ECH era (1983-1990). 
JAMELIE HASSAN

​Jamelie Hassan is a visual artist and activist based in London, Ontario. Since the 1970's, she has exhibited widely in Canada and internationally. She is also active as a lecturer, writer and independent curator and has travelled extensively. ​In 2001 she received a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts in recognition of her artistic achievement. 
FERN HELFAND

Fern Helfand is a photo-based artist and educator living in Kelowna, BC. Helfand’s art production has always been influenced  by the environments and cultures in which she has lived, worked and travelled. Throughout Fern’s 40 years working in the arts, she has explored issues addressing cultural observation and commentary, tourism, consumerism and ecology, environmental concerns, racism and the changing medium of photography itself.  
S F HO

S F Ho is an artist living on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ nations. S F Ho’s  practice considers intersections of culture, history, and embodied experience from racialized, queer perspectives. Informed by a background in photography and performance art, they often incorporate language, sound, and gesture into their work. Since 2018 they have served on the Governance Committee of VIVO Media Arts, guiding the organization through crucial strategic planning initiatives while chairing the Board of Directors.  
SHELLEY KOPP

Shelley Kopp is a Ph.D. candidate in the Visual Arts Department at the University of Western Ontario. Her area of research focuses on digital archiving of traditional artwork, digital catalogues, and the concerns and advantages of these forms of representation. She is the current editor of the visual arts graduate students' journal, tba, as well as the founding associate editor- art history and theory, of tba. Shelley has collated, designed, and edited the exhibition catalogue for Hiding in Plain Sight.
OLIVIA MOSSUTO 

Olivia Mossuto is an emerging artist, curator, and writer based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Her practice engages painting, sculpture, and installation as a way to conceptualize affective and intimate encounters with beings, images, and objects. Her work interrogates how our memories function and what remains when memory fails. In more oblique ways, these ideas coalesce with topics of kitsch, craft, grief, and nature.
JUDITH RODGER

Judith Rodger is a writer, art historian, and free-lance curator. She studied at McGill University, Montreal where she received her B.A in English and Psychology. She began her career at Museum London (then the London Regional Art Gallery--LRAG), followed by the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the McIntosh Gallery at Western University.
RUTH SKINNER

Ruth Skinner works as an arts organizer, researcher, sessional instructor, and publisher in London, Ontario. She is finishing a doctoral degree in Art and Visual Culture at Western University, where her research encompasses experimental publishing practices, artists’ books, forensics, and clairvoyance.  She is a co-organizer of Support project space and operates the art imprint Edna Press.
MACKENZIE SMITH

Mackenzie Smith is a local London artist who grew up in the east end. They are a graduate from H.B. Beal Secondary School, and is in their last year of the BFA program at Western University. Their art practice focuses around LGBTQ2A advocacy, gender equality, mental health, and poverty. Mackenzie's preferred mediums are: screen printing, digital, illustration, and film. 
LUCAS STENNING
JADE WILIAMSON

Jade Williamson is an artist from London, Ontario who is currently completing an Honours Specialization of Fine Arts at Western University. Her practice recently has been informed by an interest in wildlife and raising awareness for endangered species. She is the Exclusive Artist for Polar Nation. She has been producing artwork to be used for the creation of products which proceeds go towards Polar Bears International.​

Thank you to our supporters
OUR STORY
​Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. Other former members of the board were: Debrann Eastabrook, Henry Eastabrook, Sharron Forrest, Wyn Geleynse, Janice Gurney, Jean Hay (1929 - 2008), Doug Mitchell, Kim Moodie, Gerard Pas, Peter Rist, Wanda Sawicki, Jean Spence and Jennie White.

In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

​London, Ontario is on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Attawandaron and Huron-Wendat peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum and other treaties.

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