Beginning in 2011 the academic programs of the Marilyn I. Walker School have celebrated the legacy of Marilyn, her gift and her vision by programming the Walker Cultural Leader (WCL) Series. The ongoing development and refinement of the WCL program facilitates invitations to recognized cultural leaders, top researchers, visiting artists, scholars, professionals, theatre companies, producing and presenting organizations, associations, and others to contribute to the intellectual and creative life of the School and the Niagara region.

Our guests will engage in professional activities such as public lectures, performances, exhibitions, workshops, laboratories, and demonstrations, and will participate in other pedagogical and creative activities including guest teaching, the professional mentoring of faculty and staff, critiques of student work, and community engagement activities.

In addition to generally intensifying the creative, scholarly and teaching cultures of the School, special emphasis is put on developing knowledge and familiarity of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts as an incubator in the arts and culture sector of Niagara, exploring potential intersections of the School and the surrounding community/region, and promoting inter‐ and trans‐disciplinarity within the School and beyond.

Department of Visual Arts presents Marigold Santos

Marigold Santos, Walker Cultural Leader

Marigold Santos was born in Manila, Philippines, and immigrated to Canada with her family in 1988. She pursues an inter-disciplinary art practice that gathers notions around heritage and cultural identity, folklore, motherwork, labour and decolonization, which integrate the natural world and are presented within the otherworldly. Her paintings, drawings, sculptures, and tattoo work emphasize self-hoods and identities which embrace multiplicity, fragmentation and empowerment as informed by diasporic experiences. Santos was long listed for the prestigious Sobey Art Award in 2023 and 2024 and was recently awarded the inaugural ART SG Futures Prize at Art Singapore 2026. Efflorescence/The Way We Wake, a co-created work with Rajni Perera, is currently on view at the 61st Venice Biennale, In Minor Keys, by Koyo Kouoh. She maintains an active studio practice and gratefully resides in Treaty 7 Territory, in Mohkinstsis/Calgary.

Department of Music presents Vincent Ho

Vincent Ho, Walker Cultural Leader

Vincent Ho is a multi-award winning composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and theatre music. His works have been described as “brilliant and compelling” by The New York Times and hailed for their profound expressiveness and textural beauty, leaving audiences talking about them with great enthusiasm. His many awards and recognitions have included four Juno Award nominations, Harvard University’s Fromm Music Commission, The Canada Council for the Arts’ “Robert Fleming Prize”, ASCAP’s “Morton Gould Young Composer Award”, four SOCAN Young Composers Awards, and CBC Radio’s Audience Choice Award (2009 Young Composers’ Competition). During the period of 2007-2014, Dr. Ho has served as the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s composer-in-residence and had presented a number of large-scale works that have generated much excitement and critical praise.

Department of Dramatic Arts presents Mike Payette

Mike Payette, Walker Cultural Leader

Mike Payette is a director, educator and actor who has worked at some of Canada’s finest theatres. He has appeared onstage at incredible companies across the country including The Citadel, Vertigo, Banff Centre, Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland, Repercussion Theatre, Segal Centre, Centaur, The Grand, Factory Theatre, Neptune, and the National Arts Centre, among others.  His directing credits include Queen Maeve, Come Home: The Legend of Daddy Hall, Cockroach (曱甴), Craze, and Paint Me This House of Love (Tarragon); Mischief (Neptune/Tarragon/Native Earth Performing Arts); Takwahiminana(Soulpepper/Punctuate! Theatre); Blithe Spirit (Shaw Festival); Choir Boy (Canadian Stage/Arts Club Theatre and Centaur); Harlem Duet (Black Theatre Workshop); Another Home Invasion (Tableau D’Hôte Theatre); Hosanna (Centaur/TDHT); Around the World in 80 Days and Reaching for Starlight (Geordie); Venus, Burning Vision and Indecent (National Theatre School); Sensitivity (Obsidian Theatre/CBC Gem, as part of 21 Black Futures); the French-language premiere of Héritage – A Raisin in the Sun (Théâtre Duceppe); along with the national tours of The Tashme Project (Tashme Prod/Centaur/Factory/Firehall) and Lorena Gale’s Angélique (BTW/Tableau D’Hôte/NAC/Factory/Obsidian).  A lecturer at Toronto Metropolitan University, and frequent guest artist at the National Theatre School of Canada, Mike is a two-time Montreal English Theatre Award (META) recipient, a Robert Merritt Award nominee, has served on the board for several local and national arts organizations, and was the co-founding Artistic Director of Tableau D’Hôte Theatre and past Assistant Artistic Director for Black Theatre Workshop. He was also Artistic and Executive Director of Geordie Productions in Montreal before becoming Artistic Director for Tarragon Theatre in Toronto where he is currently based.