Anna Khimasia is an independent educator, curator and cultural worker. Her curatorial focus is contemporary art, performance and alternative practices with a commitment to inclusion, diversity and equity. She received her Ph.D. from the Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture here at Carleton University (2015). Anna has been active in Ottawa and the Gatineau region and has worked with Galerie SAW Gallery, the Ottawa Art Gallery, SAW Video, Fait Maison, AXENÉO7, the Canada Council for the Arts, and most recently the U.S. Ambassador to Canada’s spouse, Vicki Heyman. In 2017 she curated Open Space Lab (OSL), a new initiative with Carleton University Art Gallery which invited artists to use the gallery space as a research development space for new performance-based projects. In 2017, OSL01: Gita Hashemi was awarded an OAAG best exhibition award for monograph under 20K. Live in Palestine, an exhibition of performance artists living and working in Palestine opened at AXENÉO7 in the summer of 2018 and will open at A Space Gallery in Toronto in January 2019.