Sara Peel brings 20 years of experience in the arts and cultural sector to her position as Director of Operations and Facilities at The Bentway. With a strong professional focus and passion for public events in public spaces, she is excited to help make The Bentway a place for the people of Toronto and our visitors to share and delight in.
Before joining The Bentway team, Sara was the Managing Director of North by Northeast, the Manager of Events at Yonge-Dundas Square, and the Operations Strategist for the Design Exchange’s inaugural Expo for Design, Innovation and Technology. Sara’s portfolio includes creating and managing strong relationships with government and municipal partners, emergency planning and incident management, event management, change management, and creating good policy and operational structure for arts organizations. Originally hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Sara travelled the world for many years working as a large-scale event producer, production manager and stage manager, predominantly in outdoor events and festivals, before settling in Toronto ten years ago. Having started her career cueing cassettes in the Adelaide Fringe in 1995, Sara has maintained a strong relationship with Fringes around the world, and was President of the Board of the Toronto Fringe for three years. She is now Treasurer of the Canadian Improv Games. She has a giant old English sheepdog named Nigel who expresses affection by drooling a lot.