About Charity Chan

Arts Leadership | Cross-Cultural Connection

Adept at navigating cultures and scenes locally, nationally and internationally, Charity Chan bridges communities and practices across genres, disciplines, geographies and heritages.

Over the course of more than two decades, Charity has worn various hats in the non-profit arts & culture sector. From launching community embedded education initiatives, to cross-cultural arts curation, to public programs development, to conference management, to long-term artistic planning, to large-scale live event production, Charity’s experience is wide-ranging. Her organizational experience runs the gamut from artist-founded non-profits to cultural institutions belonging to a multi-national development agency. Recent work includes roles at the Aga Khan Museum, Luminato Festival Toronto, the Art of Time Ensemble, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto.

In an earlier life, Charity was an avid performer, composer, and researcher. Her performances, presentations and studies include work with: the Sun Ra Arkestra, Ornette Coleman, Fred Frith, Joelle Leandre, Zeena Parkins, India Cooke, Roscoe Mitchell, Pauline Oliveros, Sylvie Courvoisier, Wilbert de Joode, Achim Kaufmann, Han Bennik, CCMC (Michael Snow, John Oswald, Paul Dutton), Lori Freedman, Jean Derome, Joane Hetu, Malcolm Goldstein, Le Quah Ninh, Frank Gratkowski and Elliot Sharp. Her recordings can be found on Tzadik, Ambiances Magnetiques and Carrier Records among others.

Speaking and teaching engagements have been for various academic and cultural organizations, including Northwestern University, the International Society for Improvised Music, Columbia University, New York University, University of British Columbia, and the Guelph and Vancouver Jazz Festivals.