Sara Diamond

Dr. Sara Diamond is currently President of OCAD University (2018). Diamond holds a PhD in Computing, Information Technology and Engineering from the University of East London, a Master’s in Digital Media theory from the University of the Arts London and an Honour’s Bachelor of Arts in History and Communications from Simon Fraser University. She is an appointee of the Order of Ontario and the Royal Canadian Society of Artists; and also a Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto. During her tenure, OCAD U has taken a leadership role in digital media, design research, and curriculum, through the Digital Futures Initiative. Diamond also played a leading role in OCAD University’s establishment of the Indigenous Visual Culture program.

Diamond was hugely influential in the B.C. labour, feminist, LGBTQ2S and independent video movement from the mid-1970s through the mid 1990s. She was an innovator and influencer in Vancouver’s cultural and academic communities as a solo artist, curator educator (ECUAD, VIVO Media Arts Centre), and as co-founder of Amelia Productions and founder of the Women’s Labour History Project.

Diamond worked at VIVO Media Arts Centre for over a decade (from the early 1980s) spearheading exhibition and education programs for women, inspiring more to engage with the radical potential of the medium. She mentored women in arts administration, curation, media criticism, and production at VIVO as well as in her independent practice.

Diamond’s personal artworks are held by the Art Bank (Ottawa),Museum of Modern Art (NYC), and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa). In 1992, Diamond was honoured with a retrospective exhibition and catalogue at the National Gallery of Canada, following a retrospective at the 1991 IMAGES Festival in Toronto and a solo exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery.