Our Team

Gen Cloutier is an artist, re-searcher, writer, educator, and community organizer living and working on this unsurrendered and unceded Algonquin Anishinaabeg territory. She holds an Integrated Media Arts degree from Emily Carr University of Art and Design and a SSHRC-funded PhD in Education from the University of Ottawa, exploring transdisciplinarity, collaboration, pedagogy, and art/re-search. She has extensive experience in grant writing and inclusive program design across the arts, education, and not-for-profit sectors.

Gen has lived in the Wakefield region for 10 years, and has loved collaborating on community art projects with many of the area’s wonderful organizations. Her transdisciplinary art practice is rooted at La Place des Artistes de Farrellton, where she founded the Imagine Action Youth Council. Committed to equitable and inclusive approaches to community building and art, she is excited to bring that energy to the 100 Mile Arts Network.

Sebastien grew up in Wakefield participating in just about every cultural event and organization around. He studied Political Science at Queen’s university and founded the Arctic Youth Network, an international NGO supporting youth-driven change in the Arctic. His work in media, advocacy, and leadership development was recognized with a Top 25 under 25 Environmentalist award in 2020. He has a passion for storytelling and aims to promote the personal side of the issues of today.

Jenn is a self-described ‘creative generalist’ and ‘solutioneer’ with a soft spot for string lights, community-building, belly-laughs, and things so beautiful you wish you could gobble them up (paintings, sunsets, babies…). She has been a professional artist, cook, event planner, published writer, and most recently, a mother. Her artwork has been exhibited, collected, and published internationally. She loves new ideas, old forests and ‘heartwork.’

Krista Cooke is a museum curator and historian with decades of public history experience in the national capital region and beyond. She has worked at the Canadian Museum of History, the Canadian War Museum, Library and Archives Canada, Ingenium, and most recently at Parks Canada. Her main research areas are modern Canadian social history, women’s history, and how museums tell the stories of underrepresented communities.

Soon taking early retirement from Parks Canada, Cooke is looking forward to the next chapter.  She is excited to take on new work and volunteer projects, to explore new hiking trails, and can’t wait to join the region’s thriving arts scene as a potter and Gallery Coordinator for the 100 Mile Arts Network.

Iris Kiewiet is a Dutch Canadian artist living in Wakefield QC, with a bachelors from Arts Academy Minerva in The Netherlands. Her early career took shape in Rotterdam, where she worked as an illustrator for Dutch national newspapers and book publishers. Living close to the Tenàgàdino Zibi/Gatineau River, forests and hills, her work is influenced by eco systems and speaks to the cycles of life, care, and renewal. She created a public art piece at the Wakefield Spring, inspired by the aquifer and the rhythm of daily visitors. Kiewiet is a PAF artist member and has participated in The Artist in their Environment Tour, La Fab sub-committees, and other cultural initiatives in the Outaouais. Community art projects, independent book collaborations, studio painting series, and art in the schools workshops connect her work to the region.

My passion is storytelling. Everyone has a story. Everyone deserves to have a voice and anyway that might be. I don’t like flashy videos with music pasted over it. I am here to show and tell more than that, even in the most subtle ways. There’s the story, then the story behind it. I shoot want I love. I find that the truest form of art.

Matt is a local musician and educator. Known for his lively accordion playing and community organizing, he can be found leading the monthly Irish Session at Wakefield’s Cafe Earle or playing locally with his band Ruckustodian.