Michael Orlando has held several positions in the arts and culture field as well as the private sector. Working in advertising and account management from 2009 to 2014, he served as territory manager and lead when acquiring new publications. Michael is pleased to rejoin the arts sector full-time as Senior Manager, Operations at the Gardiner.

Outside the Museum, Michael is the Artistic Director of the Theatre Lab, a Toronto-based company that was established in 2008. He has worked extensively with both Canadian and international theatre and performance companies as a playwright, actor, director, dramaturge, and producer. Theatre Lab also operates a rental space and community-hub located in the Bloordale neighbourhood of Toronto.

Michael is thrilled to be at the Gardiner, helping to grow and develop all the commercial aspects of the Museum. He is a graduate of the Humber Theatre Conservatory.

Siobhan Boyd graduated from York University with an BA in Anthropology and an MSc in Archaeology from UCL, University of London, England. Her research interests include cultures from the Ancient Americas and Ontario prehistory. As a practicing archaeologist, she spends most of her summers in Ecuador where she excavates Inca and pre-Inca fortifications.

Siobhan joined the Gardiner in 2002, and currently heads the Education & Programs Department, which includes school programs, clay classes, and other adult programming.

Sequoia Miller is a curator, historian, and studio potter. He has a BA in Russian & Art History from Brandeis University, an MA in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture from the Bard Graduate Center in New York City, and a PhD in the History of Art from Yale University. His thesis analyzed the connections between ceramics and conceptual art practices on the East and West Coasts of the United States in the 1960s and ‘70s. Sequoia curated The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art at the Yale University Art Gallery and authored the accompanying award-winning catalogue. Before re-entering academia, he was a full-time studio potter for more than 10 years. Based in the Pacific Northwest, he made one-of-a-kind functional pots for daily use in domestic environments. Sequoia has exhibited widely and led workshops at craft schools, universities, and art centers in the U.S. and Canada.

Kelvin Browne joined the Gardiner Museum as Executive Director and CEO in 2013. Prior to this, he held several different positions at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), including Managing Director of the Institute of Contemporary Culture and Vice President of Marketing and Major Exhibitions. Kelvin is also well-known as a magazine and newspaper columnist on design, and authored the book Bold Visions (2007) about the architecture of the ROM.

Kelvin was born in Penticton, B.C., and graduated from St. John’s-Ravenscourt School in Winnipeg. He holds a Masters in Architecture from the University of Toronto.

Sophie Vayro brings over ten years of experience in arts and cultural administration to her role as Senior Manager, Development.

After completing a degree in History at Simon Fraser University and a certificate in Sport and Event Marketing Management at George Brown College, she went on to work in development, both at Tapestry New Opera and the development consultancy Hennessy & Associates, where she assisted in securing private sector support for a client base of small to medium-sized cultural, environmental, and social service non-profit organizations. Prior to joining the Gardiner, she ran her own arts and non-profit administration business in Toronto working with a variety of music, theatre, and dance companies.

Sophie has two young daughters and is an avid recreational soccer player.

Rachel Weiner joined the Gardiner Museum in 2015 as Communications and Volunteer Coordinator before taking on the role of Senior Manager, Marketing in 2017. Prior to the Gardiner, she worked in the Education and Marketing departments at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg (2012 – 2015). Rachel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with an Honours Specialization in History from the University of Western Ontario (2007), and an MA in Art History (2010) and B.Ed (2012) from the University of Toronto.

Karine Tsoumis is a specialist of the Italian Renaissance with a focus on sixteenth-century Venetian art, maiolica and the material culture of the domestic space. She received her Masters’ Degree in Art History from McGill University (2005), and her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto (2013). She joined the Gardiner Museum in 2012 as the curator of the historical collection. Since joining the Gardiner, she has led research on the permanent collections; has been involved in the reinstallation of some of the Museum’s galleries; and curated two major exhibitions, Animal Stories: Friends, Foes, Fables and Fantasy (2013), and Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary (2017) (with an accompanying exhibition catalogue). In addition, she curated a range of thematic exhibitions including The Art of the Everyday: Faience in Seventeenth-and Eighteenth-Century France (2013), The Joy of Collecting (2014), Powder and Patches: Porcelain for the Boudoir in Eighteenth-Century Europe (2016), and A Brilliant Invention: Majolica from the Rosalie Wise Sharp Collection (2017). She was also co-editor and contributor to 30 Objects, 30 Insights (2014), a book of essays celebrating the Gardiner Museum’s collection. Her current research focuses on Renaissance maiolica considered in the context of trade in luxury objects in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with a focus on the Venetian Republic. She is currently a Fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at Victoria University in the University of Toronto.

Meredith is an independent specialist in early European porcelain, dining and social culture of the eighteenth century, as well as theatre history. Educated at the University of East Anglia and Manchester University, she first joined the Gardiner Museum in 1983. As Acting Director and Curator, she worked with the team responsible for opening the museum. Subsequently, she became the museum’s curator, a role she retained for over twenty years.

In 2004 Meredith left the Gardiner Museum to produce a major three-volume monograph for the Melinda and Paul Sullivan Foundation: Fired by Passion, Vienna Baroque Porcelain of Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier. The English edition was launched with an exhibition she co-curated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 2009; the German edition at the Liechtenstein Palace Museum in Vienna. Meredith was the principal contributor to Daily Pleasures: French Ceramics from the MaryLou Boone Collection (Los Angeles County Museum of Art: 2012). She is currently working on the English edition of a catalogue for the Kiscell Museum in Budapest.

Meredith has curated over 20 exhibitions, published approximately 50 articles and books, and has made four films with the CBC. In 1990, one of her articles was republished in Best Canadian Essays, and again in Prose Models for Undergraduates. Her 2001 publication, Harlequin Unmasked: The Commedia dell’Arte and Porcelain Sculpture was awarded three international awards for research and theatre history. Meredith teaches and lectures extensively in North America and Europe. She has sat on a variety of Boards, and is the honorary member of three ceramics institutions. In 2005 she was honoured by the Gardiner Museum Volunteers, who named the Meredith Chilton Commedia dell’Arte Gallery in perpetuity at the Gardiner Museum.

After a ten year absence, Meredith rejoined the Gardiner Museum team as Acting Chief Curator before retiring at the end of 2017. In September 2018, she was appointed Curator Emerita.

Lauren Gould has worked in a variety of roles within the arts and higher education sectors with a focus on promoting public engagement, implementing organizational improvements, and working in collaboration with a range of partners.

Lauren began her career in Montreal working for both Concordia University and Centennial Academy and College managing a variety of fundraising, events, and engagement programs. From 2005 to 2009, Lauren managed the Education Department at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, part of National Museums Liverpool in the UK. Returning to Canada in 2010, Gould was appointed General Manager at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, overseeing the administration of the organization’s four divisions and day-to-day operations, as well as authoring the organization’s first strategic plan. Joining the Gardiner Museum in 2013 as the Audience Development Manager, Lauren served as the Senior Manager of Development and Programs from 2014 to 2017 when she was appointed Chief Operating Officer.

Lauren completed her B.A. at Concordia University specializing in Creative Writing, Art History, and Studio Art. She also has an M.A. in Cultural Leadership from Liverpool John Moores University.