Gavin Sheppard is the Founder of I.C. Visions and Co-founder of the Remix Project. He has been involved in community development and the cultural industries professionally since the age of 17.
The Remix Project is a youth-led, urban arts organization focused on the individual while building a strong and healthy community.
Devoted to the personal and professional development of young people in the arts and cultural industries, Remix works with young people to turn their creative passions into viable economic revenue streams and careers.
He has been an artist, a producer/manager, and a consultant for many artists, producers, and companies throughout Canada. Gavin is a strong advocate for both young people and the arts throughout the world, speaking regularly at venues as diverse as the Canadian Heritage All-Staff retreat, to conferences for UN Habitat on safe cities. Gavin was also a member of Mayor Miller’s community safety advisory panel, a co-founder of the Grassroots Youth Collaborative (GYC) and the South Etobicoke Youth Assembly (SEYA). Gavin is a 2010 TED Fellow.
Gavin will use his Vital People grant to partake in courses in order to help develop and refine his abilities in Financial Management and Supervision (at University of Toronto), and Board Development and Management Training (through Laidlaw Foundation). He will also travel to Montreal to benefit from a mentorship opportunity with Francois Morrelli, professor of fine arts at Concordia University and practicing artist and Dianne Charbonneau, curator of Le Musee Des Beaux Arts in Montreal, where he will explore best practices in curriculum development for Remix, and develop social business models in order to refine the new social enterprise wing at Remix and help make Remix sustainable.
