Ontario Presents is a network of performing arts presenters from across the province. We work together to bring diverse live shows to communities all over the province, making sure everyone has access to engaging performing arts experiences.
Ontario Presents operates programs and services that help members adopt inclusive approaches, build capacity, develop leadership, and grow and diversify their audiences. We work with a range of performing arts centers, community presenters, touring artists, agents, and industry contacts to foster a thriving, inclusive performing arts sector in Ontario.
Join our membership of more than 70 presenters!
What is a Presenter?
Presenters bring live performing arts to our communities. They organize and host events, manage venues, select which shows come to their community, and create opportunities for audiences to experience diverse live performances. Presenters can include performing arts centres, local arts groups, volunteer-led associations, municipal-run venues, festivals, or community groups.
These individuals or organizations not only choose and schedule performances but also handle logistics such as ticketing, marketing, technical setup, and audience engagement activities. Presenters play a critical role in making sure that communities across Ontario have access to high-quality and diverse live performances, enriching local cultural life and fostering connections between artists and audiences.
Statement of Purpose
Whereas art is a fundamental aspect of the human experience that enriches the lives of individuals and communities, fosters empathy, and builds essential bridges of understanding;
AND presenting organizations are uniquely positioned to facilitate engagement between artists and communities;
Ontario Presents exists to strengthen and support the practice of performing arts presentation so that it becomes more collaborative, artist-focused, and meaningful to communities. We believe that building effective and authentic relationships is fundamental to our work.
Ontario Presents’ mission, then, is to foster effective working relationships among artists, agents, producers, and presenters in their mutual endeavors to stage great performing arts experiences that open citizen’s minds and hearts to the world and the peoples around them.
Our Values
- Respect: Fundamental respect for all people is essential to all interactions
- Collaboration: We can achieve more by working together than alone
- Trust: Collaboration requires trust, honesty, and fair dealing
- Community: A focus on relationships over individual gain ultimately helps to build culturally, socially, and economically thriving communities
- Inclusion: All people deserve access to the arts
- Continual Learning: We are more effective when we recognize our own gaps in knowledge and understanding and operate in a spirit of continual learning
Download the Statement of Purpose, Values and Guiding Principles here
Guiding Principles
- Provide a safe working environment in all of our professional interactions;
- Proactively listen to the unique needs of the membership in order to provide appropriate responses and support;
- Remove barriers to participation in presentation and touring;
- Actively encourage inclusivity, equity, and diversity in the presenting field; and
- Actively advocate for the advancement of the touring and presenting field.
Download the Statement of Guiding Principles for Presenting Indigenous Work here
Ontario Presents 2024-2025 Board of Directors
- Chair: Sara Palmieri, Executive Director, Burlington Performing Arts Centre, Burlington
- Vice-Chair: Jahn Fawcett, Portfolio Manager, Shenkman Arts Centre, Ottawa
- Treasurer: Danny Harvey, Programming Coordinator, Brampton on Stage, Brampton
- Secretary: Nicole Rochefort, Founder, AIM: Artists In Motion, Toronto
- Alyson Martin, Chairperson, Sioux Hudson Entertainment Series, Sioux Lookout
- Dan Misturada, Director of Programming and Events, Capitol Centre, North Bay
- Dan Watson, Executive Director, Huntsville Festival of the Arts, Huntsville
- Debora Johns, Manager, Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts, Oakville
Ontario Presents gratefully acknowledges the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and all Ontario Presents Members