Shawn Van Sluys

Guelph

Shawn Van Sluys is the Executive Director of Musagetes, a philanthropic foundation that experiments in small Canadian and European cities with ways to connect communities more deeply with the arts and creativity. The foundation’s mandate is to make the arts more central and meaningful in people’s lives, in their communities and societies. He joined Musagetes as its first Executive Director in January 2009. Prior to that, he was the first Executive Director of the Canadian Art Museum Directors’ Organization, a national arts-service organization that represents 85 museum directors. Shawn studied art history at the University of Lethbridge. He is the Vice-President of the Guelph Jazz Festival and of the Ammirato Culture House in Lecce, Italy. As a member of the Executive Team of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) at the University of Guelph, he leads the Practice-Based Research working group.